Ring opening of sucralose At the start of my PhD, my supervisor gave me a project in which I would try to do a ring opening of sucralose using periodate to get a tetra-aldehyde product.
Molecular structure of Guar gum The idea was to optimize this process and then to transfer these same conditions to convert guar gum to its tetra-aldehyde, convert the aldehyde groups to alkynes by a Corey–Fuchs reaction and then do click chemistry (copper catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition) with a variety of azides in order to functionalize guar gum.
Looking back on it now it seems a bit far fetched. I gave it a try but I eventually found my way into another project involving isocyanates and hydantoins. To begin my investigation, I carried out a solvent survey of sucralose and guar gum. The results, posted below, reminded me that carbohydrates really don't dissolve in much.
Solubility of sucralose and guar gum in selected solvents
While I didn't get any further than this, the next step would be to try blends of water with organic solvents. I would also like to try cyclohexanone.
