Enantioselective liquid-solid extraction for screening of structurally related chiral stationary phases

Summary An enantioselective liquid-solid batch extraction method is described for the screening of novel chiral stationary phases (CSPs) during optimization studies of chiral selectors derived form a common lead structure. Extraction enantioselectivity (α) values can be calculated from the enantiomeric excess ee-values of the selectand, which are measured in the liquid phase by enantioselective HPLC. Extraction α-values have been correlated with chromatographic α-values. The influence was studied of several experimental parameters of the assay (pH_a, buffer concentration, temperature, selector/selectand and phase ratio) on the enantiomeric excess (ee) values of the selectands and the enantioselectivity of the CSPs, respectively. The derived statistically significant model has then been implemented to predict chromatographic α-values of novel CSPs. For example, an ee of 89.3% for DNB-Leu as selectand could be achieved in batch extraction for a novel synthesized but mechanistically similarly-acting CSP derived form quinine. This corresponds to a calculated extraction α-value of 17.7. Based on this α_extraction a chromatographic α-value of 28.8 was predicted by the linear correlation model; the experimental HPLC α-value of 31.7 was in good agreement and demonstrated the validity of the proposed screening method. The method is particularly helpful in SO optimization studies.