Processes, Solvents, and Methods of Activation

For sucrose to be useful as a raw material for chemical technology, synthetic methods must be satisfactory in terms of economic and of environmental aspects. Bioconversions are cleaner methodologies, but are not necessarily economically viable, and there is a need to find media and methodologies that propose alternatives to expensive and/or toxic solvents, as well as procedures that require heating. 

Supercritical C02 is not considered a satisfactory solvent for unprotected carbohydrates, but some peracetylated sugar were stated to act as emulsifiers in C02-water or C02-organic solvent mixtures.354 Ionic liquids have also been shown to solvate carbohydrates at a level allowing preparative processes,355,356 for example for the acetylation sucrose.91 This list of unusual solvents should 

It may be noted that sucrose solutions enhanced exhibit hydrophobic effects, leading to increased rate accelerations of such reactions as the Diels-Alder and related processes.363 

The most useful property of sucrose is probably its high polarity, which is shared with many sucrose derivatives,18,364 with practical implications as 

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