New chiral phosphine-phosphite ligands in the enantioselective palladium-catalyzed allylic alkylation

A series of chiral phosphine-phosphite ligands 1-6 have been synthesized and used in the enantioselective palladium-catalyzed reaction of rac-1,3-diphenyl-2-propenyl acetate with dimethyl malonate as nucleophile. Ligands 1a, 2, 3, 5a, 6a, and 6b have been synthesized starting from racemic tert-butylphenylphosphinoborane. The use of dynamically resolved Li phosphide (-)-sparteine provided the optically pure ligands. Crystals of the allylpalladium (6a) complex were obtained, suitable for X-ray crystal structure determination. The X-ray crystal structure of the allylpalladium (6a) complex revealed a longer palladium-carbon bond distance trans to the phosphine moiety indicating that the attack of the nucleophile takes place at the carbon trans to the phosphine moiety. This was confirmed by the fact that the phosphine moiety did not affect the enantioselectivity directly. Under mild reaction conditions, enantioselectivities up to 83% were obtained (25 degrees C) with ligand 1e. Systematic variation of the ligand bridge and the phosphite moiety showed that the configuration of the product is controlled by the atropisomerism of the biphenyl substituent at the phosphite moiety. The conformation of the biphenyl group, in turn, is controlled by the substituent at the chiral carbon in the bridge. Ligands with large bite angles yielded higher enantioselectivities.     

An experimental study of chromatographic dynamics in open and packed non-cylindrical conduits

A systematic investigation of the influence of the perimeter shape of open and particle packed fused silica capillaries on chromatographic properties such as resistance to flow and dispersion of solutes propelled through these channels has been conducted. Verifications of these uncommon experiments with existing theoretical treatments are presented and the insights transferred to a novel polymer chip design with integrated facilities for complex separations. A comparison of the chromatographic performance of a real life proteomics sample on this chip with a capillary column of "similar" dimensions is presented.     

Intercalation of Benzamide into Kaolinite

Well-crystallized kaolinite (K) was initially reacted at 60 degrees C with a water/dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) mixture and the resulting intercalation derivative (K-DMSO) was characterized by powder X-ray diffractometry (PXRD), thermal analysis (simultaneous TG and DSC), and Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Benzamide crystals were then melted with the K-DMSO derivative at 140 degrees C for 4 days, when a gradual displacement of DMSO by benzamide was observed within the interlayer spacing of the modified kaolinite. The resulting material, after extensive washing with acetone, was characterized and compared to the results obtained previously for the K-DMSO composite. Benzamide intercalation proceeded by gradual displacement of DMSO molecules until completion. The structural stabilization of the K-BZ derivative was explained through the establishment of hydrogen bonds between the carbonyl oxygen atoms of the intercalated benzamide and aluminol groups present at the surface of the kaolinite layer. The interlamellar spacing of K-BZ was shown to be possibly occupied by benzamide molecules that were located at a 68 degrees orientation in relation to the layer surface. Unlike most intercalation molecules such as DMSO, variations in the interplanar spacing of kaolinite were consistent with the nonkeying of any other part of the molecule between the aluminosilicate interlayers. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.     

Analysis of dimeric cyanine–nucleic acid dyes by capillary zone electrophoresis in N,N-dimethylacetamide as non-aqueous organic solvent

A method based on capillary zone electrophoresis is presented for the determination of the purity of commercial dimeric cyanine dyes (TOTO, YOYO, BOBO, all -1 and -3 species, LOLO-1, POPO-1) that are common as fluorescent probes for nucleic acid staining. These dyes are tetracharged cations, and have a strong tendency to interact with negatively charged centres, where they are rapidly adsorbed, especially from aqueous solutions. Thus anionic sites at the capillary wall must be avoided, and aqueous buffers are not suitable. The method introduced here avoids both complications, using non-aqueous N,N-dimethylacetamide as solvent, and suppressing the dissociation of silanol groups at the capillary surface due to selection of acidic separation conditions (20 mmol/l perchloric acid as background electrolyte). The present method enables the determination of the purity of all 10 dyes in less than 15 min. The selectivity of the method allows separation of at least five main and differentiating a number of unresolved minor contaminants as demonstrated in detail for TOTO-3 as an example. Quantitation (with 100% normalisation of the peak areas) of nine lots of this dye results in a purity between 33 and 87%.     

Influence of pressure and temperature on the physico-chemical properties of mobile phase mixtures commonly used in high-performance liquid chromatography

To fulfil the increasing demand for faster and more complex separations, modern HPLC separations are performed at ever higher pressures and temperatures. Under these operating conditions, it is no longer possible to safely assume the mobile phase fluid properties to be invariable of the governing pressures and temperatures, without this resulting in significantly deficient results. A detailed insight in the influence of pressure and temperature on the physico-chemical properties of the most commonly used liquid mobile phases: water-methanol and water-acetonitrile mixtures, therefore becomes very timely. Viscosity, isothermal compressibility and density were measured for pressures up to 1000 bar and temperatures up to 100 degrees C for the entire range of water-methanol and water-acetonitrile mixtures. The paper reports on two different viscosity values: apparent and real viscosities. The apparent viscosities represent the apparent flow resistance under high pressure referred to by the flow rates measured at atmospheric pressure. They are of great practical use, because the flow rates at atmospheric pressure are commonly stable and more easily measurable in a chromatographic setup. The real viscosities are those complying with the physical definition of viscosity and they are important from a fundamental point of view. By measuring the isothermal compressibility, the actual volumetric flow rates at elevated pressures and temperatures can be calculated. The viscosities corresponding to these flow rates are the real viscosities of the solvent under the given elevated pressure and temperature. The measurements agree very well with existing literature data, which mainly focus on pure water, methanol and acetonitrile and are only available for a limited range of temperatures and pressures. As a consequence, the physico-chemical properties reported on in this paper provide a significant extension to the range of data available, hereby providing useful data to practical as well as theoretical chromatographers investigating the limits of modern day HPLC.     

Performance limits of monolithic and packed capillary columns in high-performance liquid chromatography and capillary electrochromatography

A method is proposed for the comprehensive characterization and comparison of columns in the high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) and capillary electrochromatographic (CEC) modes. Using this approach, column parameters such as the number of plates, the eddy-diffusion and mass-transfer contributions to peak broadening, the permeability, and the analysis time are incorporated in a single graph and a comparison in terms of efficiency and speed is obtained. The chromatographic performance of silica-based and polymer-based monolithic capillary columns is discussed and a comparison is made with the performance of packed columns. Also, the potential of ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography is discussed in this context. In the HPLC mode, the best results were obtained with silica monoliths; in the CEC mode, the low-density methacrylate-ester-based monoliths showed the best performance.     

In-line coupling of low-pressure short capillary electrochromatography columns to electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry

A new in-house designed and constructed injection valve for capillary electrochromatography (CEC) based on a rotating injection part with compartments for the eluent as well as for the sample has been coupled to a mass spectrometer via a sheath flow electrospray ionisation (ESI) interface, using short capillary columns of 15 cm length. The CEC columns were packed with 3 microm C(18) bonded silica particles, and a mixture of peptides was analysed using an ammonium acetate/acetonitrile eluent. A significant increase in the signal-to-noise ratio was obtained when the peptides were dissolved in water with the same content of organic modifier as in the eluent with an addition of 0.5% (v/v) acetic acid. When the CEC analysis was performed without any additional pressure, the separation current sometimes dropped tremendously due to bubble formation, caused by different permeability in the first and packed part of the column causing an extremely low electroosmotic flow. The separation current was restored to its original value by applying only 7 bar at the inlet of the CEC column, and the separation performance for the test peptides was recovered. A comparison of the CEC performance of peptides in pure CEC mode and in low-pressure CEC mode is reported.     

Capillary electrochromatography-laser-induced fluorescence method for separation and detection of dansylated dialkylamine tags in encoded combinatorial libraries

LC-fluorescence and LC-MS methods have been previously reported for use in decoding bead-based combinatorial libraries. We present the use of capillary electrochromatography (CEC) for highly selective decoding in combination with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection for high sensitivity. The results are compared to prior data obtained using HPLC with fluorescence detection. The use of CEC shows promise for miniaturization and multiplexing for future applications, and the use of LIF detection can allow for detection at sub-pmol amounts.     

Comparison of the efficiency of microparticulate and monolithic capillary columns

A comparison is made between the efficiency of microparticulate capillary columns and silica and polymer-based monolithic capillary columns in the pressure-driven (high-performance liquid chromatography) and electro-driven (capillary electrochromatography) modes. With packed capillary columns similar plate heights are possible as with conventional packed columns. However, a large variation is observed in the plate heights for individual columns. This can only be explained by differences in the quality of the packed bed. The minimum plate height obtained with silica monolithic capillary columns in the HPLC mode is approximately 10 microm, which is comparable to that of columns packed with 5-microm particles. The permeability of wide-pore silica monoliths was found to be much higher than that of comparable microparticulate columns, which leads to much lower pressure drops for the same eluent at the same linear mobile phase velocity. For polymer-based monolithic columns (acrylamide, styrene/divinyl benzene, methacrylate, acrylate) high efficiencies have been found in the CEC mode with minimum plate heights between 2 and 10 microm. However, in the HPLC mode minimum plate heights in the range of 10 to 25 microm have been reported.