CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS:
Our readers have chosen α-ʟ-cyclodextrin as the molecule of the year.
This α-ʟ-cyclodextrin is made up of six sugar units. Researchers also made seven- and eight-sugar versions. Chemists created three different-size cyclodextrins using ʟ-glucose, whose molecular geometry is the mirror image of that of naturally occurring ᴅ-glucose (Nat. Synth. 2024, DOI: 10.1038/s44160-024-00495-8).
The switched-around stereochemistry of these ʟ-cyclodextrins could come in handy for several applications, such as drug delivery and enantioselective synthesis.
