A number of unanswered questions occurred to us upon reading a communication by Yam and Kai (ref.) which had reported optical sensing properties of a boronic-acid-appended ReI complex for saccharides. Careful re-examination has disclosed that the pKa-value proposed by them (5.9) is wrong and that the saccharide-binding mode at pH above the pKa is totally different from that at pH below the pKa. The absorption spectral change, which reflects an ...
