Enantiomeric Separations using Chiral Counter-Ions

Sammanfattning: This thesis describes the use of chiral counter-ions for the enantiomeric separation of amines in non-aqueous capillary electrophoresis. The investigations have been concentrated on studies of the influence, of the chiral counter-ion, the solvent, the electrolyte and the analyte, on the enantioselective separation. Modified divalent dipeptides have been introduced in capillary electrophoresis for the separation of amino alcohols and chiral resolution of amines. Association constants for the ion-pair between dipeptide and amino alcohol could be utilized for development of separation systems with higher amino alcohol selectivity. Chiral discrimination (ion-pair formation) between the dipeptides and amines are preferably generated in non-aqueous background electrolytes (BGEs). The amount of triethylamine in the BGE determined the dipeptide charge and a divalent dipeptide promoted higher enantioselectivity than a monovalent dipeptide. An N-terminal-end blocking group and glutamic acid at the C-terminal-end of the dipeptide was important for chiral separation of the amines. Chemometric and univariate methods have been employed for evaluation of suitable solvent compositions in the BGE. An experimental design including a single solvent as well as binary, ternary and quaternary mixtures of polar organic solvents, showed that optimal enantioresolution was obtained with an ethanol:methanol 80:20 mixture in the BGE.  Furthermore, water was found to have an adverse influence on enantioselectivity and no enantioresolution was obtained with BGEs containing more than 30 % water. An alkali metal hydroxide added to the BGE affected the chiral separation by competing ion-pair formation with the selector. The electroosmosis was reduced in order of decreasing alkali metal ion solvated radius and became anodic using K, Rb or Cs in ethanolic BGEs. The correlation between the amino alcohol structure and the enantioselectivity was investigated using chemometrics. The obtained models showed that enantioselectivity for the amino alcohols was promoted by e.g. degree of substitution and substituent size on the nitrogen.