Experimental probing and modeling of key sorbent–solute interactions of norephedrine enantiomers with polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases

High-Enantioselectivity Adsorption Separation of Racemic Mandelic Acid and Methyl Mandelate by Robust Chiral UiO-68-Type Zr-MOFs

Mandelic acid and its analogues are highly valuable medical intermediates and play an important role in the pharmaceutical industry, biochemistry, and life sciences. Therefore, effective enantioselective recognition and separation of mandelic acid are of great significance. In this study, two of our recently reported chiral amine-alcohol-functionalized UiO-68-type Zr-HMOFs 1 and 3 with high chemical stability, abundant binding sites, and large chiral pores were selected as chiral selectors for the enantioselective separation of mandelic acid (MA), methyl mandelate (MM), and other chiral molecules containing only one phenyl. Materials 1 and 3 exhibited excellent enantioselective separation performance for MA and MM. Especially for the separation of racemate MA, the enantiomeric excess values reached 97.3 and 98.9%, which are the highest reported values so far. Experimental and density functional theory (DFT) computational results demonstrated that the introduction of additional phenyls on the chiral amine alcohol pendants in 3 had somewhat impact on the enantioselective adsorption and separation of MA or MM compared with 1, but it was not significant. Further research on the enantioselective separation of those chiral adsorbates containing only one phenyl by material 1 indicated the crucial role of the groups directly bonded to the chiral carbons of the adsorbates in the selective separation of enantiomers, especially showing higher enantioselectivity for the adsorbates with two hydrogen-bonding groups directly bonded to its chiral carbon.

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Amylose- and Cellulose-Based Selectors and Related Enantioseparations in Liquid Phase Chromatography

In the last few decades, theoretical and technical advancements in computer facilities and computational techniques have made molecular modeling a useful tool in liquid-phase enantioseparation science for exploring enantioselective recognition mechanisms underlying enantioseparations and for identifying selector-analyte noncovalent interactions that contribute to binding and recognition. Because of the dynamic nature of the chromatographic process, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are particularly versatile in the visualization of the three-dimensional structure of analytes and selectors and in the unravelling of mechanisms at molecular levels. In this context, MD was also used to explore enantioseparation processes promoted by amylose and cellulose-based selectors, the most popular chiral selectors for liquid-phase enantioselective chromatography. This review presents a systematic analysis of the literature published in this field, with the aim of providing the reader with a comprehensive picture about the state of the art and what is still missing for modeling cellulose benzoates and the phenylcarbamates of amylose and cellulose and related enantioseparations with MD. Furthermore, advancements and outlooks, as well as drawbacks and pitfalls still affecting the applicability of MD in this field, are also discussed. The importance of integrating theoretical and experimental approaches is highlighted as an essential strategy for profiling mechanisms and noncovalent interaction patterns.

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.

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.

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.

Recent studies of docking and molecular dynamics simulation for liquid-phase enantioseparations

Liquid-phase enantioseparations have been fruitfully applied in several fields of science. Various applications along with technical and theoretical advancements contributed to increase significantly the knowledge in this area. Nowadays, chromatographic techniques, in particular HPLC on chiral stationary phase, are considered as mature technologies. In the last thirty years, CE has been also recognized as one of the most versatile technique for analytical scale separation of enantiomers. Despite the huge number of papers published in these fields, understanding mechanistic details of the stereoselective interaction between selector and selectand is still an open issue, in particular for high-molecular weight chiral selectors like polysaccharide derivatives. With the ever growing improvement of computer facilities, hardware and software, computational techniques have become a basic tool in enantioseparation science. In this field, molecular docking and dynamics simulations proved to be extremely adaptable to model and visualize at molecular level the spatial proximity of interacting molecules in order to predict retention, selectivity, enantiomer elution order, and profile noncovalent interaction patterns underlying the recognition process. On this basis, topics and trends in using docking and molecular dynamics as theoretical complement of experimental LC and CE chiral separations are described herein. The basic concepts of these computational strategies and seminal studies performed over time are presented, with a specific focus on literature published between 2015 and November 2018. A systematic compilation of all published literature has not been attempted.

Recognition Mechanisms of Chiral Selectors: An Overview

Stereospecific recognition of chiral molecules plays an important role in nature as the basis of the interaction of chiral bioactive compounds with the chiral target structures. In separation sciences such as chromatographic and capillary electromigration techniques, interactions between chiral analytes and chiral selectors, i.e., the formation of transient diastereomeric complexes in thermodynamic equilibria, are the basis for chiral separations. Due to the large structural variety of chiral selectors, different structural features contribute to the overall chiral recognition process. This introductory chapter briefly summarizes the present understanding of the structural enantioselective recognition processes for various types of chiral selectors.

Chiral separation and a molecular modeling study of eight azole antifungals on the cellulose tris(3,5-dichlorophenylcarbamate) chiral stationary phase

Four immobilized polysaccharide-based chiral stationary phases have been examined for their enantioselectivity on azole analytes using normal phase liquid chromatography.

Enantioselective assembly of amphipathic chiral polymer and racemic chiral small molecules during preparation of micro-scale polymer vesicles

Enantioselective assembly is observed during preparation of vesicles from a solution mixture of an amphipathic block copolymer bearing pendent chiral L- or D-phenylalanine groups in hydrophobic segments and racemic chiral small molecules. Primary experimental results reveal that racemic chiral small molecules have been enantioselectively encapsulated into the hydrophobic shells of assembled vesicles with homochiral bilayer membrane structure, showing reverse CD signals compared with the original vesicles. A further study shows that the enantiomeric excess obtained through the enantioselective assembly is directly dependent on the molecular weight of the hydrophobic chiral chain segments, implying both the hydrophobic interaction and chirality are key points during the assembly of vesicles. Other factors, such as hydrogen-bonding interactions and π-π stacking interaction, are also found to be responsible for the enantioselective assembly phenomenon during the formation of the vesicles.

Enzymatic synthesis of L-norephedrine by coupling recombinant pyruvate decarboxylase and ω-transaminase

L-Norephedrine, a natural plant alkaloid, possesses similar activity as ephedrine and can be used as a vicinal amino alcohol for the asymmetric synthesis of a variety of optically pure compounds, including pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and agrochemicals. Because of the existence of two asymmetric centers, efficient synthesis of L-norephedrine has been challenging. In the present study, an R-selective pyruvate decarboxylase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and an S-selective ω-transaminase from Vibrio fluvialis JS17 were coupled to develop a sequential process for the stereoselective biosynthesis of L-norephedrine. After systematic optimization of the reaction conditions, a green, economic, and practical biocatalytic method to prepare L-norephedrine was established to achieve de and ee values of greater than 99.5 % and a molar yield over 60 %. The present coupling approach can facilitate the development of sequential reactions by various biocatalysts.

Removal of anionic azo dyes from aqueous solution by functional ionic liquid cross-linked polymer

A novel functional ionic liquid based cross-linked polymer (PDVB-IL) was synthesized from 1-aminoethyl-3-vinylimidazolium chloride and divinylbenzene for use as an adsorbent. The physicochemical properties of PDVB-IL were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The adsorptive capacity was investigated using anionic azo dyes of orange II, sunset yellow FCF, and amaranth as adsorbates. The maximum adsorption capacity could reach 925.09, 734.62, and 547.17 mg/g for orange II, sunset yellow FCF and amaranth at 25°C, respectively, which are much better than most of the other adsorbents reported earlier. The effect of pH value was investigated in the range of 1-8. The result shows that a low pH value is found to favor the adsorption of those anionic azo dyes. The adsorption kinetics and isotherms are well fitted by a pseudo second-order model and Langmuir model, respectively. The adsorption process is found to be dominated by physisorption. The introduction of functional ionic liquid moieties into cross-linked poly(divinylbenzene) polymer constitutes a new and efficient kind of adsorbent.

Chiral recognition in separation science: an overview

Chiral recognition phenomena play an important role in nature as well as analytical separation sciences. In separation sciences such as chromatography and capillary electrophoresis, enantiospecific interactions between the enantiomers of an analyte and the chiral selector are required in order to observe enantioseparations. Due to the large structural variety of chiral selectors applied, different mechanisms and structural features contribute to the chiral recognition process. This chapter briefly illustrates the current models of the enantiospecific recognition on the structural basics of various chiral selectors.

High-performance liquid chromatography enantioseparation of atropisomeric 4,4'-bipyridines on polysaccharide-type chiral stationary phases: Impact of substituents and electronic properties

The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) enantioseparation of eleven atropisomeric 4,4'-bipyridines was performed in the normal and polar organic phase mode using three cellulose-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs), namely Lux Cellulose-1, Lux Cellulose-2, Lux Cellulose-4, and two amylose-based CSPs, Chiralpak AD-H and Lux Amylose-2. n-Hexane/2-propanol mixtures and pure ethanol were employed as mobile phases. The combined use of Chiralpak AD-H and Lux Cellulose-2 allowed to enantioseparate all the considered bipyridines. Ten bipyridines were enantioseparated at the multimilligram level allowing the elution sequence determination of the enantiomers as well as their future use for the preparation of homochiral metal organic frameworks (MOFs). Moreover, the performance of the CSPs regarding the same bipyridine was different and dependent on the backbone as well as on the side chain of the polymer. The impact of substitution pattern, shape and electronic properties of the molecules on the separation behavior was investigated through the evaluation of retention factors (k), separation factors (α), resolution (R(s)) and molecular properties determined using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In this regard, the substituents at the 3,3',5,5' positions of the 4,4'-bipyridyl rings exhibited a pivotal role on the enantioseparation.

Computational study of enantioseparation by amylose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate)-based chiral stationary phase

The mechanism of chiral separation on amylose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) is studied with docking simulations of enantiomers by molecular dynamics. All-atom models of amylose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) on the modified silica gel surface were constructed for the docking simulations of metalaxyl and benalaxyl. The elution orders and energetic differences were also predicted based on the intermolecular interactions, which were in agreement with the experimental results. The radial distribution function was employed to analyze the structural features of the enantiomer-chiral stationary phase complex and used to elucidate the mechanism of chiral separation. The separation of metalaxyl and benalaxyl is mainly controlled by the hydrogen bond. And the binding sites had slight differences for the pair of enantiomers, but obvious differences between different chemicals.