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

The correlation between the saccharide crystal structure and its gelating ability 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 form one-dimensional hydrogen-bonded networks may be essential as a prerequisite for good gelators. The gelation abilities were tested for four configurational isomers (methyl-4,6-O-benzylidyne-α-D-glucopyranoside, methyl-4,6-O-benzylidyne-α-D-allopyranoside, methyl-4,6-O-benzylidyne-α-D-altropyranoside, and methyl-4,6-O-benzylidyne-α-D-idopyranoside) which exhibit quite different hydrogen-bonded networks in their crystal structures. Only in the case of one-dimensional hydrogen-bonded architecture the good gel systems were found.