Synthesis and liquid-crystalline properties of novel archaeal diether-type glycolipids possessing one or two furanosyl units

Archaeal diether-type analogues possessing one or two furanosyl polar head groups and methyl branched aliphatic moieties were synthesized by glycosylation of glycerolipids with pent-4-enyl 2,3,5,6-tetra-O-acetyl-d-glycofuranosides as the donors. The products were shown to form thermotropic and lyotropic liquid crystalline mesophases, tubules and vesicles. The self-assembling properties of the compounds prepared were found to be similar to those of naturally occurring materials, in that they exhibited columnar thermotropic mesophases and hexagonal lyotropic phases.