Assisted chiral separations

Nonselective membranes can assist enantioselective processes, providing essential nonchiral separation characteristics and thus making a chiral separation based on enantioselectivity outside the membrane technically and economically feasible. For this purpose several configurations can be applied (i) liquid-liquid extraction based on hollow-fiber membrane fractionation (ii) liquid- membrane fractionation and (iii) micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF). 

Apryll M. Stalcup received her PhD in chemistry (1988) from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. After postdoctoral training at the University of Missouri-Rolla, she joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hawaii-Manoa in 1990 as an assistant professor. She moved to the Chemistry Department at the University of Cincinnati as an associate professor in 1996 and was promoted as a professor in 2002. Her research interests include liquid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, chiral separations, and investigations of separation mechanisms. 

As shown in Eq. (2) together with the chiral recognition Kk + Kg), the other necessary requirement for enantioseparations in CE is a mobility difference between the free and the complexed analyte fXf - fjL, 0). Otherwise, it will be impossible to transfer a chiral recognition into a chiral separation. This requirement does not hold when neutral analytes are analyzed with neutral chiral selectors. In such a case, an additional buffer component is required that will assist in generating a difference between the mobilities of an analyte in its free and complexed forms with a chiral selector. This is achieved by an achiral micellar phase in cyclodextrin-modified micellar electrokinetic chromatography (CD-MEKC) [9]. However, a charged CD or a chiral micellar phase can combine the... 

To operate SMB chromatography a lot of parameters (column diameter, column length, total column number and number of columns per section, eluent, feed, raffinate, extract and recycle fluid flow and switch time interval) have to be chosen correctly. Therefore, design and process optimization should be done by computer simulations. It is much more difficult to optimize SMB during nonlinear conditions as compared to linear conditions. In fact, empirical approaches for optimization during overloaded and non-linear conditions are in most cases even impossible [96, 97], Computer-assisted optimization is therefore especially important for chiral separations since these CSPs have in general lower saturation capacities compared to non-chiral columns (see paper III). 

Before starting a preparative chiral separation it is essential to identify a chiral stationary phase (CSP) exhibiting good chiral recognition ability. This is usually done with an analytical column because it is less substance- and time-consuming. A stationary phase mostly composed of silica gel with only a few chiral elements will be rapidly overloaded. In this event, even if the phase exhibits useful properties for analytical purposes, it will not be appropriate for preparative applications this is the case for protein-based phases [102, 103], Most chiral stationary phases have relatively low saturation capacity, so the enantiomer separations are usually done under strongly nonlinear conditions [103], Accordingly, the accurate determination of the adsorption isotherms of the two enantiomers on a CSP is of fundamental importance to allow computer-assisted optimization to scale up the process. 

The accurate determination of the adsorption isotherm parameters of the two enantiomers on a CSP is of fundamental importance to do computer-assisted optimization to scale up the process. Such determinations are usually done with an analytical column and the most traditional method to determine the parameters and saturation capacity is by frontal analysis (see section 3.4.2). The aim of paper III was to investigate the adsorption behavior and the chiral capacity of the newly developed Kromasil CHI-TBB column using a typical model compound. Many of the previous studies from the group have been made on low-capacity protein columns which has revealed interesting information about the separation mechanism [103, 110, 111], For this reason a column really aimed for preparative chiral separations was chosen for investigation [134], As solute the enantiomers of 2-phenylbutyric acid was chosen. 

The choice of an appropriate sheath liquid and its flow rate is essential to achieve good performance. This choice is a compromise between separation (to maintain an efficient electrophoretic separation) and ionization performances (to assist droplet formation and spray stability). Most CE-ESI-MS applications described in the literature for the analysis of protonated compounds use a sheath liquid containing a mixture of organic solvent, water and formic or acetic acid. In method development, the impact of the nature of the sheath liquid on the expected chiral separation can be evaluated by placing it in the outlet vial. The solubility of the chiral resolving agent in the sheath liquid has to be carefully investigated to avoid its precipitation at the spray needle. 

Another possibility of constructing a chiral membrane system is to prepare a solution of the chiral selector which is retained between two porous membranes, acting as an enantioselective liquid carrier for the transport of one of the enantiomers from the feed solution of the racemate to the receiving side (Fig. 1-5). This system is often referred to as membrane-assisted separation. The selector should not be soluble in the solvent used for the elution of the enantiomers, whose transport is driven by a gradient in concentration or pH between the feed and receiving phases. As a drawback common to all these systems, it should be mentioned that the transport of one enantiomer usually decreases when the enantiomer ratio in the permeate diminishes. Nevertheless, this can be overcome by designing a system where two opposite selectors are used to transport the two enantiomers of a racemic solution simultaneously, as it was already applied in W-tube experiments [171]. 

Most of the chiral membrane-assisted applications can be considered as a modality of liquid-liquid extraction, and will be discussed in the next section. However, it is worth mentioning here a device developed by Keurentjes et al., in which two miscible chiral liquids with opposing enantiomers of the chiral selector flow counter-currently through a column, separated by a nonmiscible liquid membrane [179]. In this case the selector molecules are located out of the liquid membrane and both enantiomers are needed. The system allows recovery of the two enantiomers of the racemic mixture to be separated. Thus, using dihexyltartrate and poly(lactic acid), the authors described the resolution of different drugs, such as norephedrine, salbu-tamol, terbutaline, ibuprofen or propranolol. 

For the separation of racemic mixtures, two basic types of membrane processes can be distinguished a direct separation using an enantioselective membrane, or separation in which a nonselective membrane assists an enantioselective process [5]. The most direct method is to apply enantioselective membranes, thus allowing selective transport of one of the enantiomers of a racemic mixture. These membranes can either be a dense polymer or a liquid. In the latter case, the membrane liquid can be chiral, or may contain a chiral additive (carrier). Nonselective membranes can also... 

When using PFT with a neutral selector, it is quite difficult to avoid any entrance of the chiral selector into the ionization source, particularly at a high pH, where EOF is important. The use of BGE at low pH and/or coated capillary to minimize EOF is therefore mandatory. However, the coaxial sheath gas, which generally assists the ionization process, leads to an aspirating phenomenon of the chiral selector in the MS direction. Javerfalk et al. were the first to apply PFT with a neutral methyl-/i-CD for the separation of racemic bupivacaine and ropivacaine with a polyacrylamide-coated capillary and an acidic pH buffer (pH 3). Cherkaoui et al. employed another neutral CD (HP-/1-CD) with a PVA-coated capillary for the analysis of amphetamines and their derivatives. To prevent a detrimental aspiration effect, analyses were carried out without nebulization pressure. Numerous other studies presented excellent results such as the enantioselective separation of adrenoreceptor antagonist drugs using tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) the separation of clenbuterol enantiomers after solid-phase extraction (SPE) of plasma samples or the use of CD dual system for the simultaneous chiral determination of amphetamine, methamphetamine, dimethamphetamine, and p-hydroxymethamphetamine in urine. 

Alain Berthod received his PhD in 1979 from the University of Lyon. He took an assistant professor s position at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) working in electrochemistry. In 1983 he was promoted as associate professor and in 1993 as research director. He focused on the developing and the use of micellar solutions and microemulsions in chromatography. His interests lie in the separation of chiral molecules and enantiorecognition mechanisms. He has contributed to the development of the countercurrent chromatography technique that uses a sup-port-free liquid stationary phase. He was member of the editorial board of major analytical chemistry and chromatography journals. He is editor-in-chief of Separation Purification Reviews (Taylor Francis, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). 

Another way to obtain chiral clusters is to use mixed-metal systems (see Section II,A). Addition of acid to one of the two diastereomers of [WCo(/i-HC2CH(OH)Et)(CO)5Cp] leads to formation of two propargylium cations which do not isomerize in solution on the NMR time scale.75 Similarly, protonation of the separate diastereomers of [MoCo(/i-2-propynylborneol) (CO)5Cp] leads to formation of propargylium cations which are nonflux-ional. It has been shown that the diastereomer ratios for metal-stabilized cationic clusters can be directly correlated with the ionization process, and it is proposed that the elimination of water is anchimerically assisted by... 

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