Light-assisted preparation of vancomycin chiral stationary phase based on diazotized silica and its enantioseparation evaluation by high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract

Owing to enantiomers’ identical physical and chemical properties, separation work in the chiral environments is still a great challenge.and chemical properties. Chromatographic techniques employing chiral stationary phases (CSPs) have been developed as powerful tools for the chiral analysis and preparation of pure enantiomers. Here we report a facile synthesis of vancomycin stationary phase based on diazotized silica. Monodisperse silica particles were synthesized by a modified Stöber method. The obtained silica particles were modified by self-assembly photosensitive diazoresin (DR) and vancomycin on the surface. After treatment with UV light, the ionic bonding was converted into covalent bonding through a unique photochemistry reaction of DR. Baseline separation of chiral drugs was achieved by using the vancomycin@SiO2 particles as packing materials in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The effects of separation parameters including elution mode, flow rate and analyte mass on the enantioselectivity of the CSP were investigated in detail. Due to the replacement of highly toxic and moisture sensitive silane agent by water soluble non-toxic DR in the modification of silica microspheres, this method provides a green and easy way to manufacture packing materials for chromatography applications.