Combined Lewis acid and Brønsted acid-mediated reactivity of glycosyl trichloroacetimidate donors.

Biomimetic conditions for a synthetic glycosylation reaction, inspired by the highly conserved functionality of carbohydrate active enzymes, were explored. At the outset, we sought to generate proof of principle for this approach to developing catalytic systems for glycosylation. However, control reactions and subsequent kinetic studies showed that a stoichiometric, irreversible reaction of the catalyst and glycosyl donor was occurring, with a remarkable rate variance depending upon the structure of the carboxylic acid.