Award Address (Claude S. Hudson Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry, sponsored by National Starch and Chemical Company). Cyclodextrin Chemistry

CARB 2

Pierre Sina˙, Pierre.Sinay@ens.fr, Département de Chimie, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, Paris, France
We have discovered in the last few years that diisobutylaluminum hydride (DIBAL-H) is achieving a remarkable A-D type bis-de-O-benzylation of fully benzylated a- and b-cyclodextrins (1). In order to understand this reaction a mechanistic model has been developped (2), involving two molecules of aluminum reagent. Based on this plausible mechanism, we have now achieved a selective clockwise duplication of this double ablation, through either a so-called bascule-bridge strategy (3) or other tricks. This new concept in cyclodextrin chemistry provides an unprecedented entry to highly differentiated cyclodextrins.

(1) A.J. Pearce, P. Sina˙, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl. 2000, 39, 3610-3612 (2) T. Lecourt, A.J. Pearce, A. Hérault , M. Sollogoub, P. Sina˙, Chem. Eur. J., 2004, 12, 2960-2971 (3) O. Bistri, M. Sollogoub, P. Sina˙, Chem. Commun., 2006, 1112-1114