Enantiomeric Purities of (R)‐ and (S)‐Camphors from the Chiral Pool and High Enantiomeric Purities in General

Abstract

AbstractThe commercially available camphor enantiomers are extensively used in several important areas of chemical research, and it seems that they are often considered to be enantiomerically pure (the meaning of the term is discussed); there are certainly no enantiomeric purities (e.p.) on record. By standard GLC on a modified cyclodextrin column, we have now found five commercial (R)‐camphors to have the same high but imperfect e.p., (99.62 ± 0.02)% (R), a sixth a slightly higher e.p., (99.76 ± 0.06) % (R), and three (S)‐camphors to have different and lower e.p. Nailing down these e.p. is useful by itself and puts into focus the sensitivity of present day GLC, and how little is know about high e.p. in general.