Valerie Denise Harding

SYNTHESIS OF OLIGOSACCHARIDE DENDRIMERS

As many as 21 D-glucopyranoseresidues have been incorporated into oligosaccharide dendrimers (right) in a convergent synthesis involving the blockwise contruction of oligosaccharide “wedges”, followed by their attachment to a central core component. These nanosized, highly branched macromolecules possess molecular diameters ranging between 5 and 6 nm and molecular weights in the order of 10000 Daltons.

Per-6-bromo-per-2,3-dimethyl-β-cyclodextrin

An efficient synthesis of the title compound, per-6-bromo-per-2,3-dimethylβ-cyclodextrin, is described, giving access to a highly soluble cyclodextrin, which may be used for further chemical modification of β-cyclodextrin. Crystals of the target compound were grown and the solid state structure was determined by X-ray crystallography, revealing a cyclodextrin derivative whose conformation deviates substantially from C7 symmetry.