Dependence of chiral recognition on the degree of substitution of cellulose benzoate

A series of cellulose benzoates with different degrees of substitution (DS) were prepared by aminolysis under homogeneous conditions. Using them as a stationary phase, the dependence of the chromatographic chiral recognition of cellulose benzoate (CB) on its DS was studied under normal phase conditions. For most enantiomeric pairs, chiral recognition decreased along with the decrease in DS. However, some enantiomeric pairs were resolved only by CBs carrying unsubstituted hydroxyl groups. Many of the compounds were quite strongly retained by cellulose benzoate with a DS of 2.8. A study of the retention behaviors of simple achiral compounds led us to the conclusion that the change in the retention behaviors by introducing free hydroxyl groups into tribenzoate is not caused by hydrogen bonding including the hydroxyl groups, but by a specific unidentified change.