Coordination-driven high sucralose loading, releasing and purifying performance of edible β-cyclodextrin...

Sucralose (4,1',6'-trichlorogalactosucrose, TGS) has been widely used as a new generation of artificial sweetener, and the loading, release and purification of TGS with edible porous materials such as cyclodextrin metal-organic frameworks (CD-MOF) will pave a new way for the production and application of TGS.

K/Na-β-CD-MOFs have been used in the loading, release and purification of TGS. TGS loading capacity of K-β-CD-MOF is higher than that of Na-β-CD-MOF, and the loading ratios increase with the decrease of particle size (the highest ratio is 18.00% below a size of 8.56 μm). Besides, the excellent controllable TGS releasing performance can be found in nano-sized K-β-CD-MOF, during which only 41.12% TGS were released after 24 h. The good loading/releasing performance could be explained by the coordination-driven ligand-exchange (ethanol and TGS) in β-CD-MOFs, during which the weak KO_ethanol bonds were replaced by relatively strong KCl_TGS bonds. Finally, these β-CD-MOFs can adsorb DH-4,1'-DGS (3',6'-dehydration-4,1'-dichlorogalactosucralose, main by-product in TGS production) in a TGS/DGS mixture selectively, rending a high separation factor α of 21.39. The remarkable purifying performance stems from the smaller molecular size of DH-4,1'-DGS and less steric hindrance after dehydrating on 3',6'-positions.

β-CD-MOFs exhibit excellent TGS loading/releasing performance induced by a coordination-driven process, and they can purify the TGS/DGS mixture with high efficiency. The simultaneous realization of loading/purification of TGS on a cheap and edible material will pave a new avenue for the postprocessing of TGS. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.