Enantioseparation of Tropic Acid and Its Esters by CEKC Using Sulfated β-Cyclodextrin as a Chiral Selector

Abstract

Capillary electrokinetic chromatography was successfully applied to the enantioseparation of tropic acid and its four alkyl esters (methyl, ethyl, propyl and butyl), with the same chiral center, Separation was with sulfated β-cyclodextrin (4%, m/v) containing 20 mM phosphate buffer at pH 3.0 as background electrolyte at 20 °C. The results showed that, besides hydrogen-bonding interactions between these compounds with sulfated β-CD, for tropic acid and its methyl ester the steric hindrance effect was also an important factor. However, for the other esters (ethyl, propyl and butyl), the hydrophobicity effect was higher.