Development of Synthetic Host Molecule Aiming to Artificial Enzymes for Sugar Synthesis

Pyridine-phenol alternating macrocyclic oligomers, which were designed for strong saccharide recognition ability, have been developed in this research. The qualitative study on 1H NMR and DFT calculation studies suggested that the saccharide recognition ability is much stronger than we expected before the project. However, the self-aggregation of the host was a serious problem for saccharide recognition. So the effect of steric hindrance was examined by introducing tert-butyl and 2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl groups on the host macrocycle. Finally, it was found that the association constant between the host and octyl glucoside achieved up to 900,000 /M.