Enantiomeric separations of primary amino compounds by capillary electrochromatography with monolithic chiral stationary phases of chiral crown ether-bonded negatively charged polyacrylamide gels

Abstract

A novel enantiomeric separation method by capillary electrochromatography with chiral crown ether-bonded negatively charged polyacrylamide gels is presented. Two kinds of chiral crown ether derivatives, (+)-tetraallyl 18-crown-6 carboxylate and (+)-18-crown-6 tetracarboxylic acid 2-allyl ester were synthesized and allowed to covalently bind to a negatively charged polyacrylamide gel, a so-called monolithic stationary phase, respectively. The gel was placed in fused-silica tubing, the walls of which had been activated with a bifunctional reagent to make the resulting gel bind covalently to the inner surface. Enantiomeric separations of 12 primary amino compounds were achieved using these columns and mobile phases of 200 m M triethanolamine–300 m M boric acid buffers with high efficiencies of up to 135 000 plates m −1. Both the within- and between-run reproducibilities of retention time and separation factor were good. The reproducibilities of retention time and separation factor for three different columns prepared from a different batch of monomers were acceptable. The gel-filled capillaries were stable for at least 13 months with intermittent use for 3 months followed by storage at room temperature for 10 months. The result of the optical purity test of alanine-2-naphthylamide is also described.