Abstract
Normally the detection of biologically important molecules such as saccharides is difficult. Few chemical sensing mechanisms have been developed for saccharides as they are uncharged, neither fluoresce nor quench fluorescence, and are normally present in aqueous media, which presents competitive hydrogen bonding. The recognition and measurement of saccharides has been achieved recently by certain synthetic molecular receptors or "probes," containing a boronic acid receptor moiety, which circumnavigates the normal difficulties associated with the detection of saccharides. The synthesis of two novel bidentate boronic acid molecular probes was attempted with the intent of testing their relative binding selectivity in the molecular recognition of simple monosaccharides such as glucose, fructose,and galactose.