Amylose “V” complexes: Low molecular weight primary alcohols

The methanol‐, ethanol‐, and 1‐propanol‐amylose “V” complexes have been prepared and their unit cell dimensions calculated from their x‐ray powder patterns. The small unit cell (with 13.0 A. helix diameter), previously reported to occur only after the complete removal of water, has been observed for the wet methanol and ethanol complexes. In fact, a methanol complex containing as much as one mole of water per glucose residue had the small unit cell. Residual water and residual complexing agent analyses have shown that complexes dried to constant weight under stringent conditions retain as much as one mole of water and one‐quarter mole of complexing agent per helix turn. It has been concluded that the specific organic complexing agent plays an important role in dictating the unit cell size.