Cross-linked polysiloxane-coated stable bond O-9-(2,6-diisopropylphenylcarbamoyl)quinine and quinidine chiral stationary phases as well as application in enantioselective cryo-HPLC

In this work, brush-type chiral stationary phases (CSPs) with O-9-(2,6-diisopropylphenylcarbamoyl)-modified quinidine (DIPPCQD-brush/-SH) and O-9-(2,6-diisopropylphenylcarbamoyl)-modified quinine (DIPPCQN-brush/-SH) were prepared as benchmarks for comparison with new corresponding polymeric CSPs with more stable bonding chemistry. These polymeric CSPs were prepared by coating a thin poly(3-mercaptopropyl)-methylsiloxane film together with the chiral selector onto vinyl-modified silica. In a second step, immobilization of the quinine/quinidine derivatives as well as cross-linking of the polysiloxane film to the vinyl-silica is achieved by a double thiol-ene click reaction. The polymeric CSPs exhibited similar enantioselectivity as the corresponding brush phases, but showed lower chromatographic efficiencies. Chiral acidic substances were separated into enantiomers (e.g., N-protected amino acids, herbicides like dichlorprop) in accordance with an enantioselective anion-exchange process. Oxidation of residual thiol groups of the polymer DIPPCQN-CSP introduced sulfonic acid co-ligands on the silica surface, which resulted in greatly reduced retention times. Acting as immobilized counterions, they allowed to reduce the concentration of counterions in the mobile phase, which is favorable for liquid chromatography (LC)-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry application. Ibuprofen showed a single peak under ambient column temperature. However, application of cryogenic cooling of the column enabled to achieve baseline separation at -20°C column temperature. It can be explained by an enthalpically dominated separation, which leads to an increase in separation factors when the temperature is reduced. While it is quite uncommon to work at subzero degree column temperature, this work illustrates the potential to exploit such temperature regime for optimization of LC enantiomer separations.

Heterogenous adsorption mechanisms for describing enantioselective retention in normal-phase liquid chromatography

In this study, the enantioselective retention behaviors of methyl mandelate (MM) and benzoin (B) were investigated using Chiralpak IB as a sorbent and ethanol, 1-propanol, and 1-butanol as solvent modifiers in the normal-phase mode. For both MM and B, similar chiral recognition mechanisms were observed, potentially involving at least two types of chiral adsorption sites. With a retention model describing local retention behaviors, an enantioselectivity model based on a three-site model was proposed to describe the data. Fitted parameters were also used to analyze the contributions of each type of adsorption site to the apparent retention behavior. Combining the local retention model with the three-site model provided a qualitative and quantitative explanation for the correlation between modifier concentration and enantioselectivity. Overall, our results indicated that heterogeneous adsorption mechanisms are a key aspect in understanding enantioselective retention behaviors. Distinct local adsorption sites contribute differently to apparent retention behaviors, with these contributions being influenced by the mobile phase composition to varying degrees. Hence, enantioselectivity changes with variations in modifier concentration.

Unbiased Determination of Adsorption Isotherms by Inverse Method in Liquid Chromatography

The Inverse Method is a widely used technique for the determination of adsorption isotherms in liquid chromatography. In this method, isotherm is determined from the overloaded peak profile of the component by the iterative solution of the mass balance equation of liquid chromatography. Successful use of this method requires a prior assumption of equation of isotherm (Langmuir, BET etc.). In this work, we have developed an inverse method that gives results of similar accuracy to the frontal analysis without assuming the equation of the isotherm. The oversaturated peaks were calculated using a spline fitted to data points instead of the derivative of the isotherm. The distribution of the isotherm points were optimized for minimizing the difference between the measured and calculated overloaded peaks. The accuracy of the developed method was verified with synthetic benchmark peaks and by the determination of isotherm of buthyl-benzoate under real conditions. The results confirmed that the accuracy of the developed method is similar to that of Frontal Analysis.

Effect of mobile-phase modifiers on the enantioselective retention behavior of methyl mandelate with an amylose 3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate chiral stationary phase under reversed-phase conditions

In this study, methanol, ethanol, n-propyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone, and tert-butanol were used as organic modifiers in reversed-phase mode chiral liquid-chromatography to systematically investigate the effects of mobile phase components on the enantioselective retention behavior of methyl mandelate with immobilized amylose 3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate-based sorbent called Chiralpak IA. A two-site enantioselective model was used to obtain information on the recognition mechanisms by observing the dependence of the enantioselectivity and retention factor difference on the modifier content. Similar enantioselective retention behaviors were observed for all modifiers, and characteristic modifier concentration points (P_L , P_M , and P_H ) were identified. At modifier concentrations up to P_M , the weakened hydrophobic environment resulted in polymer structural relaxation, which changed the recognition mechanisms. By contrast, at concentrations beyond P_H , considerably different enantioselectivity behaviors were observed, indicating that the existence of dipole-dipole interaction, which was stronger at higher modifier concentrations, contributed to the retention mechanisms. The concentrations at which these characteristic points occurred were dependent on the carbon number of the modifier molecule. Modifiers with more carbon numbers facilitated the transition in the enantioselective behaviors. These results demonstrated that the proposed method can provide a physically consistent quantitative description of enantioselective retention behavior in reversed-phase mode.

Recognition in the Domain of Molecular Chirality: From Noncovalent Interactions to Separation of Enantiomers

It is not a coincidence that both chirality and noncovalent interactions are ubiquitous in nature and synthetic molecular systems. Noncovalent interactivity between chiral molecules underlies enantioselective recognition as a fundamental phenomenon regulating life and human activities. Thus, noncovalent interactions represent the narrative thread of a fascinating story which goes across several disciplines of medical, chemical, physical, biological, and other natural sciences. This review has been conceived with the awareness that a modern attitude toward molecular chirality and its consequences needs to be founded on multidisciplinary approaches to disclose the molecular basis of essential enantioselective phenomena in the domain of chemical, physical, and life sciences. With the primary aim of discussing this topic in an integrated way, a comprehensive pool of rational and systematic multidisciplinary information is provided, which concerns the fundamentals of chirality, a description of noncovalent interactions, and their implications in enantioselective processes occurring in different contexts. A specific focus is devoted to enantioselection in chromatography and electromigration techniques because of their unique feature as "multistep" processes. A second motivation for writing this review is to make a clear statement about the state of the art, the tools we have at our disposal, and what is still missing to fully understand the mechanisms underlying enantioselective recognition.

Retention modeling and adsorption mechanisms in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

To interpret the dependence of solute retention behavior on modifier content in reversed-phase liquid chromatography, a theoretical framework, based on the concentration dependence of solvophobic forces imposed on solutes and the competitive adsorptions of solutes and solvent modifiers, was proposed. The generality of the developed model was demonstrated by comparing the model with conventional retention models. The linear dependence of the Gibbs energy change of solute adsorption with respect to the modifier concentration was assumed, and the model was fitted to the experimental results, with good agreement demonstrated between the experimental data and the model. Retention behaviors were inferred to be determined by two key dimensionless groups that represented the reductions in the retention factors resulting from a weakened solvophobic interaction and modifier competitive adsorption. The retention behaviors were successfully deconvoluted for each contribution as a function of the modifier concentration by using the fitted parameters. The effects of both contributions on the retention behaviors were enhanced for the solutes with aromatic groups. The standard Gibbs energy change _SL^o of benzene adsorption was found to depend linearly on the number of modifier molecules present but independent of modifier identity. For the solutes associated with hydrogen-bonding groups, the degree of reduction in the solvophobic interactions was considerably reduced. Hence, the relative contributions of both mechanisms to solute retention depend greatly on the solute structure. Perturbation method was performed to investigate the modifier adsorption mechanisms. The results show that the standard Gibbs energy change _SL^o for the first-layer adsorption of modifiers changed linearly with the carbon number of modifier molecule. These results demonstrated that the proposed model can offer a physically consistent quantitative description of retention when solvent composition is varied.

Chiral Monolithic Silica-Based HPLC Columns for Enantiomeric Separation and Determination: Functionalization of Chiral Selector and Recognition of Selector-Selectand Interaction

This review draws attention to the use of chiral monolithic silica HPLC columns for the enantiomeric separation and determination of chiral compounds. Properties and advantages of monolithic silica HPLC columns are also highlighted in comparison to conventional particle-packed, fused-core, and sub-2-µm HPLC columns. Nano-LC capillary monolithic silica columns as well as polymeric-based and hybrid-based monolithic columns are also demonstrated to show good enantioresolution abilities. Methods for introducing the chiral selector into the monolithic silica column in the form of mobile phase additive, by encapsulation and surface coating, or by covalent functionalization are described. The application of molecular modeling methods to elucidate the selector–selectand interaction is discussed. An application for enantiomeric impurity determination is also considered.

Enantioseparation of cloprostenol on the polysaccharide chiral stationary phase: Influence of the mobile phase on enantioselective adsorption

Cloprostenol (CLO) is an important chiral drug widely used in veterinary practice. In high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the acetonitrile/water system is more effective in the chiral resolution of CLO. The change in the ratio of acetonitrile and water has a great influence on the chiral selectivity of CLO. The enantioselective adsorption and nonselective adsorption of CLO on the polysaccharide stationary phase with three groups of mobile phases (Acetonitrile / 0.1 TFA; 95 Acetonitrile/5 H₂O/0.1 TFA; 45 Acetonitrile/55 H₂O/0.1 TFA) were determined and fitted with the subtraction fitting method (SFM). Adding a small amount of water to the mobile phase mainly reduced the enantioselective equilibrium adsorption constants K_s of (-)-CLO and thus changed the selectivity. Among them, the true separation factor (α_true) of the 95 Acetonitrile/5 H₂O mobile phase was as high as 92.86. Chiral preparation was performed on the basis of this mobile phase. The preparation performance in kkd (kilograms per kilogram of stationary phase purified compound per day) was 0.25 kg racemate/kg CSP/day.

Effect of 2-propanol content on solute retention mechanisms determined using amylose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) chiral stationary phase under normal- and reversed-phase conditions

The electrostatic interactions between chiral solutes and polysaccharide (PS)-based chiral selectors are the key to achieving chiral recognition; however, PS-based sorbents, derivatized of phenyl moieties, can exhibit considerably non-polar characteristics, and they are also useful for the separation of enantiomers in the reversed-phase mode. In this study, an immobilized amylose 3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate-based sorbent was used to investigate the balance between electrostatic interactions and solvophobic interactions, with complementary effects on solute retention behavior when the isopropanol (IPA) concentration was altered. It was proposed that in both normal- and reversed-phase modes, information on the retention mechanisms could be obtained by observing the curvature of the logarithm of the retention factor versus the logarithm of the IPA concentration, and the slope values of the curves were related to the number of displaced IPA molecules upon solute adsorption. Using the proposed model and the two-site adsorption model, the retention behaviors of pantolactone (PL) enantiomers in both normal- and reversed-phase modes were investigated. The PL-sorbent interactions were classified into four types: electrostatic/enantioselective, electrostatic/nonselective, solvophobic/enantioselective, and solvophobic/nonselective. At IPA concentrations below 50 vol.% in n-hexane, the retention behaviors of PL were dominated by electrostatic/enantioselective sites, whereas at IPA concentrations beyond 50 vol.%, the solvophobic interactions of PL-sorbent were strengthened and mostly nonselective. By contrast, in the reversed-phase mode, a reverse in the enantiomeric elution order of PL was observed at 10 vol.% IPA, and considerably different enantioselectivity behaviors were found below and above 20 vol.%, indicating an abrupt change in the sorbent molecular environment. At IPA concentrations beyond 40 vol.%, the presence of PL-sorbent electrostatic interactions enhanced chiral recognition.

Effect of solvents on the chiral recognition mechanisms of immobilized cellulose-based chiral stationary phase

The effect of solvents on the enantioselectivities of four structurally similar chiral solutes with a cellulose derivative-based chiral stationary phase, Chiralpak IB, were studied using acetone (AC), 2-propanol (IPA), and tert-butanol (TBA) separately as polar modifiers. The enantioselectivities α of benzoin and methyl mandelate decrease with an increase in modifier concentration C_M, whereas the enantioselectivity of pantolactone increased with increasing AC concentration. These results were attributed to the heterogeneous adsorption mechanisms of enantiomers. To interpret the dependence of enantioselectivity on modifier content, an enantioselectivity model based on a two-site adsorption model was proposed. The dependence of α on C_M was inferred to be mainly due to the distinct modulating effects of modifier concentration on the two adsorption sites: the nonselective type-I site and enantioselective type-II site. The model fitted the benzoin data satisfactorily over a wide TBA concentration range. The retention factors as a function of TBA concentration were successfully deconvoluted for each site. With the use of the proposed model, it was inferred that the chiral recognitions of benzoin and methyl mandelate were mainly achieved by the presence of an aromatic group adjacent to the hydroxyl group. When using IPA and TBA separately as modifiers, the presence of an aromatic group adjacent to the ketone group mainly contributed to the nonselective π interactions and enantioselective steric interactions, respectively. These results, along with those of the modifier adsorption isotherms, determined using the perturbation method, as well as the retention behaviors of various achiral solutes, indicate that the molecular recognition mechanism of IB sorbent is highly sensitive to the adsorbate's molecular geometry. The molecular environment of the sorbent can be controlled using different modifiers, leading to distinct adsorption and retention mechanisms.

Distinct and Quantitative Validation Method for Predictive Process Modelling in Preparative Chromatography of Synthetic and Bio-Based Feed Mixtures Following a Quality-by-Design (QbD) Approach

Process development, especially in regulated industries, where quality-by-design approaches have become a prerequisite, is cost intensive and time consuming. A main factor is the large number of experiments needed. Process modelling can reduce this number significantly by replacing experiments with simulations. However, this requires a validated model. In this paper, a process and model development workflow is presented, which focuses on implementing, parameterizing, and validating the model in four steps. The presented methods are laid out to gain, create, or generate the maximum information and process knowledge needed for successful process development. This includes design of experiments and statistical evaluations showing process robustness, sensitivity of target values to process parameters, and correlations between process and target values. Two case studies are presented. An ion exchange capture step for monoclonal antibodies focusing on high accuracy and low feed consumption; and one case study for small molecules focusing on rapid process development, emphasizing speed of parameter determination.

Liquid chromatographic enantiomer separations applying chiral ion-exchangers based on Cinchona alkaloids

As the understanding of the various biological actions of compounds with different stereochemistry has grown, the necessity to develop methods for the analytical qualification and quantification of chiral products has become particularly important. The last quarter of the century has seen a vast growth of diverse chiral technologies, including stereocontrolled synthesis and enantioselective separation and analysis concepts. By the introduction of covalently bonded silica-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs), the so-called direct liquid chromatographic (LC) methods of enantiomer separation became the state-of-the-art methodology. Although a large number of CSPs is available nowadays, the design and development of new chiral selectors and CSPs are still needed since it is obvious that in practice one needs a good portfolio of different CSPs and focused "chiral columns" to tackle the challenging tasks. This review discusses and summarizes direct enantiomer separations of chiral acids and ampholytes applying anionic and zwitterionic ion-exchangers derived from Cinchona alkaloids with emphasis on literature data published in the last 10 years. Our aim is to provide an overview of practical solutions, while focusing on the integration of molecular recognition and methodological variables.

Reliable Strategy for Analysis of Complex Biosensor Data

When using biosensors, analyte biomolecules of several different concentrations are percolated over a chip with immobilized ligand molecules that form complexes with analytes. However, in many cases of biological interest, e.g., in antibody interactions, complex formation steady-state is not reached. The data measured are so-called sensorgram, one for each analyte concentration, with total complex concentration vs time. Here we present a new four-step strategy for more reliable processing of this complex kinetic binding data and compare it with the standard global fitting procedure. In our strategy, we first calculate a dissociation graph to reveal if there are any heterogeneous interactions. Thereafter, a new numerical algorithm, AIDA, is used to get the number of different complex formation reactions for each analyte concentration level. This information is then used to estimate the corresponding complex formation rate constants by fitting to the measured sensorgram one by one. Finally, all estimated rate constants are plotted and clustered, where each cluster represents a complex formation. Synthetic and experimental data obtained from three different QCM biosensor experimental systems having fast (close to steady-state), moderate, and slow kinetics (far from steady-state) were evaluated using the four-step strategy and standard global fitting. The new strategy allowed us to more reliably estimate the number of different complex formations, especially for cases of complex and slow dissociation kinetics. Moreover, the new strategy proved to be more robust as it enables one to handle system drift, i.e., data from biosensor chips that deteriorate over time.

Combining Chemometric Models with Adsorption Isotherm Measurements to Study Omeprazole in RP-LC

The adsorption of the proton-pump inhibitor omeprazole was investigated using RP-LC with chemometric models combined with adsorption isotherm modelling to study the effect of pH and type of organic modifier (i.e., acetonitrile or methanol). The chemometric approach revealed that omeprazole was tailing with methanol and fronting with acetonitrile along with increased fronting at higher pH. The increased fronting with higher pH for acetonitrile was explored using a pH-dependent adsorption isotherm model that was determined using the inverse method and it agreed well with the experimental data. The model indicated that the peaks exhibit more fronting at high pH due to a larger fraction of charged omeprazole molecules. This model could accurately predict the shape of elution profiles at arbitrary pH levels in the studied interval. Using a two-layer adsorption isotherm model, the difference between acetonitrile and methanol was studied at the lowest pH at which almost all omeprazole molecules are neutral. Omeprazole had adsorbate–adsorbate interactions that were similar in strength for the acetonitrile and methanol mobile phases, while the solute–adsorbent interactions were almost twice as strong with methanol. The difference in the relative strengths of these two interactions likely explains the different peak asymmetries (i.e., tailing/fronting) in methanol and acetonitrile. In conclusion, thermodynamic modelling can complement chemometric modeling in HPLC method development and increase the understanding of the separation.

Liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry enantioseparation of pomalidomide on cyclodextrin-bonded chiral stationary phases and the elucidation of the chiral recognition mechanisms by NMR spectroscopy and molecular modeling

A sensitive and validated liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry method was developed for the enantioseparation of the racemic mixture of pomalidomide, a novel, second-generation immunomodulatory drug, using β-cyclodextrin-bonded stationary phases. Four cyclodextrin columns (β-, hydroxypropyl-β-, carboxymethyl-β-, and sulfobutyl-β-cyclodextrin) were screened and the effects of eluent composition, flow rate, temperature, and organic modifier on enantioseparation were studied. Optimized parameters, offering baseline separation (resolution = 2.70 ± 0.02) were the following: β-cyclodextrin stationary phase, thermostatted at 15°C, and mobile phase consisting of methanol/0.1% acetic acid 10:90 v/v, delivered with 0.8 mL/min flow rate. For the optimized parameter at multiple reaction monitoring mode 274.1-201.0 transition with 20 eV collision energy and 100 V fragmentor voltage the limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 0.75 and 2.00 ng/mL, respectively. Since enantiopure standards were not available, elution order was determined upon comparison of the circular dichroism signals of the separated pomalidomide enantiomers with that of enantiopure thalidomide. The mechanisms underlying the chiral discrimination between the enantiomers were also investigated. Pomalidomide-β-cyclodextrin inclusion complex was characterized using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and molecular modeling. The thermodynamic aspects of chiral separation were also studied.

Choice of Model for Estimation of Adsorption Isotherm Parameters in Gradient Elution Preparative Liquid Chromatography

The inverse method is a numerical method for fast estimation of adsorption isotherm parameters directly from a few overloaded elution profiles and it was recently extended to adsorption isotherm acquisition in gradient elution conditions. However, the inverse method in gradient elution is cumbersome due to the complex adsorption isotherm models found in gradient elution. In this case, physicochemically correct adsorption models have very long calculation times. The aim of this study is to investigate the possibility of using a less complex adsorption isotherm model, with fewer adjustable parameters, but with preserved/acceptable predictive abilities. We found that equal or better agreement between experimental and predicted elution profiles could be achieved with less complex models. By being able to select a model with fewer adjustable parameters, the calculation times can be reduced by at least a factor of 10.

Partial filling affinity capillary electrophoresis including adsorption energy distribution calculations--towards reliable and feasible biomolecular interaction studies

In this work, a method to study and analyze the interaction data in free solution by exploiting partial filling affinity capillary electrophoresis (PF-ACE) followed by adsorption energy distribution calculations (AED) prior model fit to adsorption isotherms will be demonstrated. PF-ACE-AED approach allowed the possibility to distinguish weak and strong interactions of the binding processes between the most common apolipoprotein E protein isoforms (apoE2, apoE3, apoE4) of high density lipoprotein (HDL) and apoE-containing HDL2 with major glycosaminoglycan (GAG) chain of proteoglycans (PGs), chondroitin-6-sulfate (C6S). The AED analysis clearly revealed the heterogeneity of the binding processes. The major difference was that they were heterogeneous with two different adsorption sites for apoE2 and apoE4 isoforms, whereas interestingly for apoE3 and apoE-containing HDL2, the binding was homogeneous (one site) adsorption process. Moreover, our results allowed the evaluation of differences in the binding process strengths giving the following order with C6S: apoE-containing HDL2 > apoE2 > apoE4 > apoE3. In addition, the affinity constant values determined could be compared with those obtained in our previous studies for the interactions between apoE isoforms and another important GAG chain of PGs - dermatan sulfate (DS). The success of the combination of AED calculations prior to non-linear adsorption isotherm model fit with PF-ACE when the concentration range was extended, confirmed the power of the system in the clarification of the heterogeneity of biological processes studied.

Comparison of the separation performances of cinchona alkaloid-based zwitterionic stationary phases in the enantioseparation of β2- and β3-amino acids

The enantiomers of twelve unusual β²- and β³-homoamino acids containing the same side-chains were separated on chiral stationary phases containing a quinine- or quinidine-based zwitterionic ion-exchanger as chiral selector. The effects of the mobile phase composition, the nature and concentration of the acid and base additives and temperature on the separations were investigated. The changes in standard enthalpy, ∆(∆H°), entropy, ∆(∆S°), and free energy, ∆(∆G°), were calculated from the linear van’t Hoff plots derived from the ln α vs.1/T curves in the studied temperature range (10–50 °C). The values of the thermodynamic parameters depended on the nature of the selectors, the structures of the analytes, and the positions of the substituents on the analytes. A comparison of the zwitterionic stationary phases revealed that the quinidine-based ZWIX(−)™ column exhibited much better selectivity for both β²- and β³-amino acids than the quinine-based ZWIX(+)™ column, and the separation performances of both the ZWIX(+)™ and ZWIX(−)™ columns were better for β²-amino acids. The elution sequence was determined in some cases and was observed to be R <S and S < R on the ZWIX(+)™ and ZWIX(−)™ columns, respectively.