Structural Architectural Features of Cyclodextrin Oligoesters Revealed by Fragmentation Mass Spectrometry Analysis

Cyclodextrins (CDs) were used in the present study for the ring-opening oligomerization (ROO) of l-lactide (LA) in order to synthesize biodegradable products with possible applications in pharmaceutical and medical fields. The practical importance of ROO reactions may reside in the possibility of synthesizing novel CD derivatives with high purity due to the dual role played by CDs, the role of the initiator through the hydroxylic groups, and the role of the catalyst by monomer inclusion in the CD cavity. The analyzed compounds were CDs modified with oligolactides obtained through ROO reactions of l-lactide in dimethylformamide. The resulting CD isomeric mixtures were investigated using classical characterization techniques such as gel permeation chromatography and nuclear magnetic resonance. Moreover, advanced mass spectrometry (MS) techniques were employed for the determination of the average number of monomer units attached to the cyclodextrin and the architecture of the derivatives (if the monomer units were attached as a single chain or as multiple chains). Thus, fragmentation studies effectuated on two different instruments (ESI Q-TOF and MALDI TOF) allowed us to correlate the size of the oligolactide chains attached to the CD with the observed fragmentation patterns.