Enantioselective adsorption of dipeptides on chiral stationary phases with grafted macrocyclic antibiotics using glycylaspartic acid as an example

One-pot method for the synthesis of β-cyclodextrin and covalent organic framework functionalized chiral stationary phase with mixed-mode retention mechanism

As a welcomed porous material, covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have many advantages and are widely used in various aspects. Particularly, COFs have aroused great attentions of scientists in chromatographic separation field due to their outstanding advantages, such as high stability, large specific surface area and multiple voids. However, endowing COFs with chirality to construct chiral stationary phase (CSP) function is still facing many challenges. Here, we firstly prepared a β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and covalent organic framework functional silica CSP named as COF@CD@SiO₂ by one-pot method to perform high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) chiral separation. The morphology and structure of the synthesized stationary phase were investigated by a variety of characterization methods including Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N₂ adsorption experiment, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and elemental analysis (EA). The prepared stationary phase realized fast separation of six enantiomers in a short time. The separation mechanism was mainly ascribed to the inclusion complexation of β-cyclodextrin and the mutli-interaction sites from COFs material. In conclusion, the prepared chiral column can be used to achieve fast separation of enantiomers with good stability and reproducibility. These results can open new avenue for using chiral COFs in liquid chromatographic separation.

Enantioselective retention mechanisms of dipeptides on antibiotic-based chiral stationary phases. II. Effect of the methanol content in the mobile phase

Effect of mobile phase (water-methanol) composition on the enantioseparation of dipeptides on the chiral stationary phase Chirobiotic R was investigated using Ala-Ala, Leu-Leu, Gly-Leu, and Leu-Gly as case studies. The lipophilicity of dipeptides was found to be an essential factor in the dependence of their retention on the methanol percentage, the retention factor of lipophobic dipeptides increasing monotonously and that of lipophilic dipeptides changing according to an asymmetric U-shaped trajectory as methanol concentration increases. The behavior of enantioselectivity as a function of the methanol content also depends on the lipophilicity of dipeptide. For lipophilic Leu-Leu, the dependence has a dome-like shape, and for more lipophobic dipeptides, Ala-Ala and Gly-Leu, it is an increasing function of the methanol concentration. The importance of solvation equilibria in the bulk liquid and on the surface of the stationary phase for the total retention is discussed from the thermodynamic point of view. Special consideration is given to the adsorption of the water-methanol mixture on the surface of the Chirobiotic R stationary phase.