Chiral Ionic Liquids in Chromatographic Separation and Spectroscopic Discrimination

Abstract

Chiral ionic liquids (CILs) are a subclass of ionic liquids (ILs) in which the cation, anion, or both may be chiral. The chirality can be central, axial, or planar. CILs possess a number of unique advantageous properties which are inherited from ionic liquids including negligible vapor pressure, wide liquidus temperature range, high thermal stability, and high tunability. Due to their dual functionalities as chiral selectors and chiral solvents simultaneously, CILs recently have been widely used both in enantiomeric chromatographic separation and in chiral spectroscopic discrimination. In this chapter, the various applications of CILs in chiral chromatographic separations such as GC, HPLC, CE, and MEKC are reviewed. The applications of CILs in enantiomeric spectroscopic discrimination using techniques such as NMR, fluorescence, and NIR are described. In addition, chiral recognition and separation mechanism using the CILs as chiral selectors or chiral solvents is also discussed.