Crown ethers chiral selectors

Capillary electrophoresis employing chiral selectors has been shown to be a useful analytical method to separate enantiomers. Conventionally, instrumental chiral separations have been achieved by gas chromatography and by high performance liquid chromatography.127 In recent years, there has been considerable activity in the separation and characterization of racemic pharmaceuticals by high performance capillary electrophoresis, with particular interest paid to using this technique in modem pharmaceutical analytical laboratories.128 130 The most frequently used chiral selectors in CE are cyclodextrins, crown ethers, chiral surfactants, bile acids, and protein-filled... 

There are many types of chiral selectors that have been applied to the separation of enantiomers by CE, but the most common are native and derivatized CDs. Other chiral selectors, which have been applied to CE separations, include natural and synthetic chiral micelles, crown ethers, chiral ligands, proteins, peptides, carbohydrates, and macrocyclic antibiotics [105,111-114]. A review by Blanco and Valverde [114] describes the separation capabilities of various chiral selectors and provides criteria for their choice in terms of molecular size, charge, and the presence of specific functional groups or substructures in the analytes. 

FIGURE 9.9 Enantioselectivity (IRIS) for enantiomeric chiral crown ether host selectors discriminating enantiomeric isoto-pomers of amino acid methyl esters in competitive binding experiments by FAB-MS. Qnantitative cross-chiral relationships... 

Early examples of enantioselective extractions are the resolution of a-aminoalco-hol salts, such as norephedrine, with lipophilic anions (hexafluorophosphate ion) [184-186] by partition between aqueous and lipophilic phases containing esters of tartaric acid [184-188]. Alkyl derivatives of proline and hydroxyproline with cupric ions showed chiral discrimination abilities for the resolution of neutral amino acid enantiomers in n-butanol/water systems [121, 178, 189-192]. On the other hand, chiral crown ethers are classical selectors utilized for enantioseparations, due to their interesting recognition abilities [171, 178]. However, the large number of steps often required for their synthesis [182] and, consequently, their cost as well as their limited loadability makes them not very suitable for preparative purposes. Examples of ligand-exchange [193] or anion-exchange selectors [183] able to discriminate amino acid derivatives have also been described. 

Inspired by the separation ability of cyclic selectors such as cyclodextrins and crown ethers, Malouk s group studied the synthesis of chiral cyclophanes and their intercalation by cation exchange into a lamellar solid acid, a-zirconium phosphate aiming at the preparation of separation media based on solid inorganic-organic conjugates for simple single-plate batch enantioseparations [77-80]. 

Addition of a chiral carrier can improve the enantioselective transport through the membrane by preferentially forming a complex with one enantiomer. Typically, chiral selectors such as cyclodextrins (e.g. (4)) and crown ethers (e.g. (5) [21]) are applied. Due to the apolar character of the inner surface and the hydrophilic external surface of cyclodextrins, these molecules are able to transport apolar compounds through an aqueous phase to an organic phase, whereas the opposite mechanism is valid for crown ethers. 

Armstrong and Jin [15] reported the separation of several hydrophobic isomers (including (l-ferrocenylethyl)thiophenol, 1 -benzylnornicotine, mephenytoin and disopyramide) by cyclodextrins as chiral selectors. A wide variety of crown ethers have been synthesized for application in enantioselective liquid membrane separation, such as binaphthyl-, biphenanthryl-, helicene-, tetrahydrofuran and cyclohex-anediol-based crown ethers [16-20]. Brice and Pirkle [7] give a comprehensive overview of the characteristics and performance of the various crown ethers used as chiral selectors in liquid membrane separation. 

Many chiral compounds can be used as selectors, for example, chiral metal complexes, native and modified cyclodextrins, crown ethers, macrocyclic antibiotics, noncyclic oligosaccharides, and polysaccharides all have been shown to be useful for efficient separation of different types of compounds. 

In summary, it can be stated that for screening approaches in CE, only CD derivatives have been used. Other chiral selectors occasionally applied in CE, such as crown ethers, macrocyclic antibiotics, and chiral surfactants [39], were not found to be involved in (generic) screening approaches for chiral separations. 

Different classifications for the chiral CSPs have been described. They are based on the chemical structure of the chiral selectors and on the chiral recognition mechanism involved. In this chapter we will use a classification based mainly on the chemical structure of the selectors. The selectors are classified in three groups (i) CSPs with low-molecular-weight selectors, such as Pirkle type CSPs, ionic and ligand exchange CSPs, (ii) CSPs with macrocyclic selectors, such as CDs, crown-ethers and macrocyclic antibiotics, and (iii) CSPs with macromolecular selectors, such as polysaccharides, synthetic polymers, molecular imprinted polymers and proteins. These different types of CSPs, frequently used for the analysis of chiral pharmaceuticals, are discussed in more detail later. 

Crown-ethers are macrocyclic polyethers capable of forming host-guest complexes, especially with inorganic and organic cations. Modification of the crown-ether by the introduction of four carboxylic groups makes it possible to use this class of compounds as chiral selectors in CE. ... 

Crown-ethers can incorporate protonated primary amine compounds by formation of ion-dipole bonds with the oxygen atoms of the chiral selector. Crown-ethers have been widely used for the separation of several pharmaceuticals both in aqueous and non-aqueous media." ... 

Based on the theory, the separation of enantiomers requires a chiral additive to the CE separation buffer, while diastereomers can also be separated without the chiral selector. The majority of chiral CE separations are based on simple or chemically modified cyclodextrins. However, also other additives such as chiral crown ethers, linear oligo- and polysaccharides, macrocyclic antibiotics, chiral calixarenes, chiral ion-pairing agents, and chiral surfactants can be used. Eew non-chiral separation examples for the separation of diastereomers can be found. 

An extremely important aspect in pharmaceutical research is the determination of drug optical purity. The most frequently applied technique for chiral separations in CZE remains the so-called dynamic mode where resolution of enantiomers is carried out by adding a chiral selector directly into the BGE for in situ formation of diastereomeric derivatives. Various additives, such as cyclodextrins (CD), chiral crown ethers, proteins, antibiotics, bile salts, chiral micelles, and ergot alkaloids, are reported as chiral selectors in the literature, but CDs are by far the selectors most widely used in chiral CE. 

Chiral crown ethers can be generally utilized as chiral selectors. They have been used as additives to mobile phases or running buffer in MECK and capillary electrophoresis (CE) systems124,125 (see Section 3.1.6.4.). 

In contrast, CSPs have achieved great repute in the chiral separation of enantiomers by chromatography and, today, are the tools of the choice of almost all analytical, biochemical, pharmaceutical, and pharmacological institutions and industries. The most important and useful CSPs are available in the form of open and tubular columns. However, some chiral capillaries and thin layer plates are also available for use in capillary electrophoresis and thin-layer chromatography. The chiral columns and capillaries are packed with several chiral selectors such as polysaccharides, cyclodextrins, antibiotics, Pirkle type, ligand exchangers, and crown ethers. 

The main components of the membrane of the enantioselective, potentiometric electrode are chiral selector and matrix. Selection of the chiral selector may be done accordingly with the stability of the complex formed between the enantiomer and chiral selector on certain medium conditions, e.g., when a certain matrix is used or at a certain pH. Accordingly, a combined multivariate regression and neural networks are proposed for the selection of the best chiral selector for the determination of an enantiomer [17]. The most utilized chiral selectors for EPME construction include crown ethers [18-21], cyclodextrins [22-35], maltodextrins 136-421, antibiotics [43-50] and fullerenes [51,52], The response characteristics of these sensors as well as their enantioselectivity are correlated with the type of matrix used for sensors construction. 

A crown ether (19-[(10-undecen-l-yl)oxy]-4R,14R-(-)4,14-diphenyl-3,6,9, 12,5-pentaoxa-21-azabicyclo[15.3.1]heneicosa-l(21),17,19-triene) was used in a plastic membrane as chiral selector for the design of EPMEs [21]. These electrodes can differentiate between S- and R-l-phenylethylammo-nium ions. The values of the slopes obtained when different plasticizers were used for EPMEs design were between 51.3 and 60.6 mV/decade of... 

The chiral recognition mechanisms in NLC and NCE devices are similar to conventional liquid chromatography and capillary electrophoresis with chiral mobile phase additives. It is important to note here that, to date, no chiral stationary phase has been developed in microfluidic devices. As discussed above polysaccharides, cyclodextrins, macrocyclic glycopeptide antibiotics, proteins, crown ethers, ligand exchangers, and Pirkle s type molecules are the most commonly used chiral selectors. These compounds... 

The chiral selectors most commonly used as additives in the buffer can be divided into three main categories inclusion systems [e.g., cyclodextrins (CDs) or crown ethers], enantioselective metal-ion complexes [e.g. cop-per(II)-L-histidine or copper(II)-aspartame], and optically active surfactants (e.g., chiral mixed micelles or bile acids). Cyclodextrins are the most widely reported, and they are used in low-pH buffers for the resolution of... 

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