‘Click chemistry’ in Cu-zeolites: a convenient access to glycoconjugates

Zeolites modified with Cu^I ions are efficient catalyst for ‘click’ reactions involving carbohydrates and aminoacid derivatives. Glycopeptides and oligosaccharides mimics as well as multivalent carbohydrate derivatives have been obtained in good to high yield using heterogeneous Cu^I-modified zeolite catalysts. Contrarily to expectation, pore sizes and internal shapes within zeolites were not a limitation and large glucosyl ditriazoles, disaccharide triazoles, and glucosylated triazolylaminoacids could easily be obtained. Such Cu^I-zeolite heterogeneous catalysts greatly facilitated products recovery, through an easy filtration-solvent evaporation sequence, thus offering a convenient alternative to current methods.