A general entry to linear, dendritic and branched thiourea-linked glycooligomers as new motifs for phosphate ester recognition in water.

A blockwise iterative synthetic strategy for the preparation of linear, dendritic and branched full-carbohydrate architectures has been developed by using sugar azido(carbamate) isothiocyanates as key templates; the presence of intersaccharide thiourea bridges provides anchoring points for hydrogen bond-directed molecular recognition of phosphate esters in water.