Striking structural transformation from cyclic oligosaccharide to aromatic series by means of the effect of lithium carbonate based on gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry.
An interesting paradigm in which the conformation of glucopyranose of beta-CD in the presence of Li(2)CO(3) is transformed into both an aromatic structure, such as the heterocyclic compound C(6)H(6)O(+) with a prominent relative abundance (RA) and the tropylium ions C(3)H(3)(+), C(5)H(5)(+), and C(7)H(7)(+) at comparatively low temperatures, and a linear structure such as C(18)H(30)O(+) and C(4)H(10)O(3)(+) is reported in the present work. The efficient transformation (higher RA, lower temperature) from a sugar structure to an aromatic structure is ascribed to the contribution of the molecule-ion interaction between beta-CD and Li(2)CO(3). Such a transformation is significant because it provides new insight into the link between supramolecular chemistry and other fields such as organic synthesis, biomineralization, environmental protection, and energy utilization.