The Chromatography Forum

of Delaware Valley

The separation of enantiomers has been carried out chromatographically for many years but it has been since the 1980s that the technique has moved into the mainstream of the determination of enantiomeric excess (i.e. purity of the various enantiomers, no matter how prepared) and of the preparative isolation of enantiomers from racemic mixtures. This development was driven by the developments in enantioselective phase systems during the 1970s and 1980s which form the basis of much of the enantioselective separations performed today. Although the vast majority of enantioselective analyses are carried out using liquid chromatography, other techniques such as supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC, which is mainly used for preparative separations at present), gas-liquid chromatography (GC, restricted to the more volatile compounds) and capillary electrophoresis (CE) have been proposed and used during this time.

The presentation reviews the principles underlying enantioselectivity and discusses the development of phase systems to achieve this for the several techniques currently employed, highlighting recent developments which enhance the selectivity, usefulness and scope of enantioselective separations.  In addition, the various separation techniques noted above are reviewed and discussed in terms of both analytical and preparative separations.