Hydrophobic Polysaccharides: Partially 2-Deoxygenated Amyloses

In this paper, we report that polysaccharide substrates bearing 2-deoxygenated amylose chains are hydrophobic. A pure partially 2-deoxygenated amylose was synthesized by the thermostable glucan phosphorylase-catalyzed enzymatic copolymerization of d-glucal, a non-native monomer, with alpha-d-glucose 1-phosphate, a native monomer from maltotriose, as a primer. A water contact angle on a cast film of the resulting polysaccharide confirms that it is hydrophobic. Enzymatic copolymerization using glycogen as a polymeric primer was used to investigate the possibility of engendering hydrophilic substrates with hydrophobicity by incorporating such polysaccharide chains; the resulting glycogen-derived films with elongated partially 2-deoxygenated amylose chains are strongly hydrophobic.

Automated summary

This paper reports the hydrophobicity of polysaccharide substrates with 2-deoxygenated amylose chains. A pure partially 2-deoxygenated amylose was synthesized and confirmed to be hydrophobic. The study also found that films derived from glycogen with elongated partially 2-deoxygenated amylose chains also exhibit strong hydrophobicity.