Twenty years of research on silica-based chiral stationary phases

Recent advances in chiral selectors immobilization and chiral mobile phase additives in liquid chromatographic enantio-separations: A review

For decades now, the separation of chiral enantiomers of drugs has been gaining the interest and attention of researchers. In 1991, the first guidelines for development of chiral drugs were firstly released by the US-FDA. Since then, the development in chromatographic enantioseparation tools has been fast and variable, aiming at creating a suitable environment where the physically and chemically identical enantiomers can be separated. Among those tools, the immobilization of chiral selectors (CS) on different stationary phases and the chiral mobile phase additives (CMPA) which have been progressed and studied extensively. This review article highlights the major advances in immobilization of CS together with their different recognition mechanisms as well as CMPA as a cheaper and successful alternative for chiral stationary phases. Moreover, the role of molecular modeling tool as a pre-step in the choice of CS for evaluating possible interactions with different ligands has been pointed up. Illustrations of reported methods and updates for immobilized CS and CMPA have been included.

Chiral expression at the solid-liquid interface: a joint experimental and theoretical study of the self-assembly of chiral porphyrins on graphite

The chiral organization of an enantiopure functional molecule on an achiral surface has been studied with the aim of understanding the influence of stereogenic centers on the self-assembly in two dimensions. A chiral tetra meso-amidophenyl-substituted porphyrin containing long hydrophobic tails at the periphery of the conjugated pi-electron system was prepared for this purpose. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images of the compound at the graphite-heptanol interface reveal a chiral arrangement of the molecules, with the porphyrin rows tilted by 13 degrees with respect to the normal to the graphite axes. In terms of molecular modeling, a combination of molecular dynamics simulations on systems constrained by periodic boundary conditions and on unconstrained large molecular aggregates has been applied to reach a quantitative interpretation on both the density of the layer and its orientation with respect to the graphite surface. The results show clearly that (i) the methyl groups of the stereogenic point toward the graphite surface and (ii) the porphyrin molecules self-assemble into an interdigitated structure where the alkyl chains align along one of the graphite axes and the porphyrin cores are slightly shifted with respect to one another. The direction of this shift, which defines the chirality of the monolayer, is set by the chirality of the stereogenic centers. Such an arrangement results in the formation of a dense chiral monolayer that is further stabilized by hydrogen bonding with protic solvents.

Combination of HPLC “Inverted Chirality Columns Approach” and MS/MS Detection for Extreme Enantiomeric Excess Determination Even in Absence of Reference Samples. Application to Camptothecin Derivatives

An original, extremely sensitive and selective HPLC-MS/MS technique for the identification and determination of the minor enantiomer in nonracemic mixtures, even when only one enantiomer is available as reference, is described. The method is based on the so-called "inverted chirality columns approach" (ICCA) and consists of the use of chiral stationary phases (CSPs) available in both enantiomeric forms: in fact, inversion of the elution order for a pair of enantiomers is observed in response to the change in column chirality. This offers two key advantages: first, it is possible to demonstrate the potential enantioselectivity of the system by generating a virtual racemate, and second, it permits the choosing of the right column chirality for trace determination. Combination with MS/MS detection affords high specificity allowing not only high sensitivity (down to 0.0025% of the minor enantiomer) but also unequivocal peak identification in complex mixtures. Applications to semisynthetic derivatives of camptothecin, endowed with antitumor activity, are reported. Moreover, applicability of ICCA is not limited to this class of molecules but generates universal support. Its use might also be extended to other classes of compounds by using other CSPs, available in both enantiomeric forms.

Novel strong cation-exchange type chiral stationary phase for the enantiomer separation of chiral amines by high-performance liquid chromatography

The preparation of novel brush-type chiral cation-exchange materials based on de novo designed synthetic low molecular mass selectors (SOs) and their evaluation for enantioselective separation of chiral amines by HPLC are presented. The SO as the functional unit for enantioselectivity contains a beta-aminocyclohexanesulfonic acid moiety and is readily accessible via straightforward synthesis in both enantiomeric forms yielding chiral stationary phases (CSPs) with opposite configurations, CSPs 1 and 2, and reversed elution orders. For the evaluation of these novel CSPs by HPLC a sound set of chiral amines, mainly amino-alcohol type drug molecules, was selected. The chromatographic evaluations were carried out using polar organic mobile phase conditions. All of the analytes could be baseline separated, compared to common CSPs in parts with excellent peak efficiencies (up to 70000 theoretical plates per meter for the second eluted enantiomer). A number of experimental parameters have been varied to look at and prove the underlying ion-exchange process on CSPs 1 and 2, and to reveal suitable conditions for their operation. In this context, the influence of proton activity in the mobile phase and the effects of varying concentration and type of the counterion as well as type of co-ion and of bulk solvent components were thoroughly investigated.