An attempt to predict the gelation ability of hydrogen-bond-based gelatorsutilizing a glycoside library

The correlation between the saccharide crystal structure and its gelating a bility seems to be a useful tool for finding promising gelators. By analogy to the other types of the hydrogen-bond-based gelators the tendency to for m one-dimensional hydrogen-bonded networks may he essential as a prerequisi te for good gelators. The gelation abilities were tested for four configura tional isomers (methyl-4,6 -O-benzylidyne-alpha -D-glucopyranoside, methyl- 4,6-O-benzylidyne-alpha -D-allopyranoside, methyl-4,6-O-benzylidyne-alpha - D-altropyranoside, and methyl-4,6-O-benzylidyne-alpha -D-idopyranoside) whi ch exhibit quite different hydrogen-bonded networks in their crystal struct ures. Only in the case of one-dimensional hydrogen-bonded architecture the good gel systems were found. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights rese rved.