Based on a pre-activation protocol, the stereoselectivity of oxazolidinone-protected amino sugar thioglycoside donors towards glycosylations can be controlled by additives. Either a-or bselectivity could be obtained by changing additives. 2,4,6-Tri-tertbutylpyrimidine (TTBP) was the best b-directing additive, while thiophene worked as the best a-directing additive. The bifunctional additives such as tetrabutyl ammonium iodide (TBAI) afforded either a-or b-selectivity depending on the amount added. Poor aselectivity of some glycosylations without any additives was greatly improved by adding TBAI or thiophene.Anomeric control in glycosylations is one of the major challenges in the synthesis of complex oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates with biological importance. 1,2 Generally, the 1,2-trans-linked glycosides are constructed by means of a participating neighboring group at the C-2 position of a glycosyl donor, while the formation of 1,2-cislinked glycosides remains a difficult task. 3 Introduction of a nonparticipating neighboring group at C-2 is insufficient to guarantee stereoselective cis-glycosylation reactions and often leads to mixtures of anomers. Recently, 2,3-trans-oxazolidinone developed first by Kerns as a special nonparticipating group for glucosamine donors attract particular attention. 4 It is a good stereodirecting group for the formation of either a-or b-glycosidic linkages. In our own work, 4d the hindered base 2,4,6-tri-tert-butylpyrimidine (TTBP) 5 was found to be a crucial factor in the stereoselectivity-controllable glycosylations of 4,6-di-Oacetyl-N-acetyl oxazolidinone protected donor 1 (Scheme 1). Based on a pre-activation protocol, 6,7 either excellent a-or b-stereoselectivity was obtained by means of the addition of TTBP or the absence of it.These results open a new avenue to modulate the stereoselectivity by changing additives in glycosylation reactions. To investigate the effect of other additives on the stereochemistry outcomes of glucosamine donor 1 and to further extend the stereoselectivity-controllable pattern to the galactosamine case, our attention was paid to exploring additives in glycosylations of amino sugar donors 1 and 2 (Figure 1) under pre-activation conditions, and our findings are reported herein.Enlightened by the mechanistic studies done by Kerns, 8a Oscarson, 8b and Ito, 8c a reasonable explanation for the controllable stereoselectivity is as follows: after pre-activation by the combination of benzenesulfinyl morpholine (BSM) and triflic anhydride (Tf 2 O) 9 donor 1 is converted into a-triflate intermediate, 10 and the glycosyl acceptor attacks in a S N 2-like fashion to form the b-glycoside; in situ anomerization of the b-glycoside under acidic conditions leads to formation of the a-glycoside. TTBP functions as an acid scavenger to hinder the anomerization and make the stereoselectivity controllable. According to this postulation, based on the pre-activation protocol, the good banomeric selectivity seems to arise from the triflate anion. To testify it and find othe...