Preparative production of colominic acid oligomers via a facile microwave hydrolysis

The hydrolysis of colominic acid via microwave irradiation was studied for the production of short-chain oligomers with a degree of polymerization (DP) of 1–5. This method was compared to the traditional acid hydrolytic method for the production of preparative quantities of short colominic acid oligomers. The oligomers were purified by size exclusion chromatography and characterized by 1H NMR. Optimal conditions for producing the dimer were found to be 12 min at 10% power in a 1000-Watt domestic microwave. This method is advantageous over the traditional technique in that the hydrolysis can be completed in just a few minutes, rather than in a few hours, it is reproducible, and yields large quantities of the desirable short chain oligomers of colominic acid.