To improve the chiral recognition capability of a cinchona alkaloid crown ether chiral stationary phase, the crown ether moiety was modified by the chiral group of (1S, 2S)-2-aminocyclohexyl phenylcarbamate. Both quinine and quinidine-based stationary phases were evaluated by chiral acids, chiral primary amines and amino acids. The quinine/quinidine and crown ether provided ion-exchange sites and complex interaction site for carboxyl group and primary amine group in amino acids, respectively, which were necessary for the chiral discrimination of amino acid enantiomers. The introduction of the chiral group greatly improved the chiral recognition for chiral primary amines. The structure of crown ether moiety was proved to play a dominant role in the chiral recognitions for chiral primary amines and amino acids.

The C9-position of quinine was modified by meta- or para-substituted benzo-18-crown-6, and immobilized on 3-mercaptopropyl-modified silica gel through the radical thiol-ene addition reaction. These two chiral stationary phases were evaluated by chiral acids, amino acids, and chiral primary amines. The crown ether moiety on the quinine anion exchanger provided a ligand-exchange site for primary amino groups, which played an important role in the retention and enantioselectivity for chiral compounds containing primary amine groups. These two stationary phases showed good selectivity for some amino acids. The complex interaction between crown ether and protonated primary amino group was investigated by the addition of inorganic salts such as LiCl, NH₄Cl, NaCl, and KCl to the mobile phase. The resolution results showed that the simultaneous interactions between two function moieties (quinine and crown ether) and amino acids were important for the chiral separation.

By connecting a quinine or quinidine moiety to the peptoid chain through the C9-position carbamate group, we synthesized two new chiral selectors. After immobilizing them onto 3-mercaptopropyl-modified silica gel, two novel chiral stationary phases were prepared. With neutral, acid, and basic chiral compounds as analytes, we evaluated these two stationary phases and compared their chromatographic performance with chiral columns based on quinine tert-butyl carbamate and the previous peptoid. From the resolution of neutral and basic analytes under normal-phase mode, it was found that the new stationary phases exhibited much better enantioselectivity than the quinine tert-butyl carbamate column; the peptoid moiety played an important role in enantiorecognition, which controlled the elution orders of enantiomers; the assisting role of the cinchona alkaloid moieties was observed in some separations. Under acid polar organic phase mode, it was proved that cinchona alkaloid moieties introduced excellent enantiorecognitions for chiral acid compounds; in some separations, the peptoid moiety affected enantioseparations as well. Overall, chiral moieties with specific enantioselectivity were demonstrated to improve the performance of peptoid chiral stationary phase efficiently.

Four chiral organosilanes based on O,O′-dibenzoyl tartardiamide, O,O′-bis-(3,5-dimethylbenzoyl) tartardiamide, O,O′-bis-(phenylcarbamoyl) tartardiamide and O,O′-bis-[(3,5-dimethylphenyl)carbamoyl] tartardiamide were synthesized and immobilized on silica to afford corresponding brush-type chiral stationary phases (CSPs) with well-defined structures. Using 54 compounds containing a wide variety of structures as analytes, the enantioselectivities of the four CSPs were evaluated under normal-phase modes. 3,5-Dimethyl substituent in the aryl group was found to significantly affect the enantioselectivity of CSPs containing aryl ester moieties. Aryl carbamate moieties in CSPs were observed more beneficial for enantioseparation than aryl ester moieties. The additional hydrogen-bond donors (NH) present in the carbamate groups contributed greatly to the enantioselectivity of CSPs, which is contrary to the results that have been found in network-polymeric CSPs.

A stationary phase (named QA C10) with quaternary ammonium embedded between a propyl and a decyl chain was synthesized by immobilization of N,N-dimethyldecylamine on chloropropyl–silica surface. A set of representative neutral, basic, and acidic compounds was employed to evaluate its chromatographic properties. The results illustrated that QA C10 was a mixed-mode stationary phase possessing both hydrophobic and ionic characteristics. The QA C10 stationary phase was further used for selective separation of alkaloids from Cortex phellodendri. Under acidic condition, alkaloids could be eluted in first 8 min, while other neutral and acidic fractions were retained better on QA C10 column. Then, obtained alkaloid fraction was analyzed by LC-MS/MS and 22 alkaloids were identified. Our study confirmed the advantages and application potential of the QA C10 stationary phase for alkaloids separation.

Eight peptoid chiral stationary phases (CSPs) terminated with N′-substituted phenyl-L-proline or L-leucine amide were prepared and evaluated under normal phase mode. With 59 racemic analytes, we compared the enantiomeric separations on CSPs terminated with p-methylphenyl, p-chlorophenyl and unsubstituted phenyl. For short peptoid selectors containing only one S-N-(1-phenylethyl) glycine (Nspe) unit, the terminal p-methyl substituent did not affect chiral recognition abilities significantly. In L-proline amide terminated CSPs, p-chloro substituent resulted in obviously inferior selectivity while in L-leucine amide terminated CSPs, it worked much better. Longer peptoid selectors containing two more Nspe units generally performed much better than the shorter ones, due to the great contributions of peptoid chain to chiral recognition. Meanwhile, the effects of the terminal substituent on selectivity were found changed on these CSPs. For CSPs terminated with L-leucine amide, the terminal p-chloro substituent in longer selector no longer produced the best recognition ability; the CSP with unsubstituted phenyl instead performed best. Comparison of these peptoid CSPs varied in terminal substituents and chain length was conducted to gain a better understanding of the chiral recognition mechanism of this type CSP and promote the development of more useful CSPs.

Two “click” binaphthyl chiral stationary phases were synthesized and evaluated by liquid chromatography. Their structures incorporate S-(−)-1,1'-binaphthyl moiety as the chiral selector and 1,2,3-triazole ring as the spacer. These chiral stationary phases (CSPs) allowed the efficient resolution for a wide range of racemic BINOL derivatives, particularly for nonpolar diether derivatives and 3-phenyl indolin-2-one analogs. The chromatographic data showed that the π–π interaction was crucial for enantiorecognition of these CSPs. Loss of enantioselectivity observed on CSP3, which are lacking the triazole ring linkage, indicated that the triazole ring linkage took part in the enantioseparation process, although it was remote from the chiral selector of the CSP. The substitution of the phenyl group at 6 and 6' positions can significantly improve the separation ability of the CSP. The chiral recognition mechanism was also investigated by tracking the elution orders and studying the thermodynamic parameters. Chirality 24:391–399, 2012. Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This paper describes the synthesis and chromatographic evaluation of a new polar-embedded stationary phase, which utilized 2,4,6-trichloro-1,3,5-triazine as the spacer. The resulting materials were characterized by elemental analysis, IR, and solid-state ¹³C NMR. Empirical test mixtures were utilized to evaluate the column, and showed that it had good performance for basic compounds and high selectivity for polyaromatic hydrocarbons. Moreover, the novel stationary phase has unique property, especially in the separation of “homologous alkaloids” from natural products.