The electron density distribution (EDD) of a tetrasaccharide composed of four benzoylated fructopyranosyl units was obtained by refinement with scattering factors from the invariom library. X-ray diffraction data was downloaded from the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). Bond topological and atomic properties were obtained by application of Bader’s QTAIM formalism. From a large number of 105 C–C bonds in the molecule average bond orders for 33 single and 72 aromatic bonds were calculated yielding values of 1.33 and 1.61. Molecular Hirshfeld and electrostatic potential (ESP) surfaces show that only weak non-covalent interactions exist. The phenyl rings of the benzoyl fragments in the outer regions of the molecule generate a positive ESP shell with repulsive properties between adjacent molecules. Weak surface interactions result in a rather unusual low density around 1.3 g cm−3, which is understandable when compared to other carbohydrates where strong O–H⋯O hydrogen bonds allow a 20% more dense packing with densities >1.5 g cm−3 as determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction.
