S-citalopram imprinted monolithic columns for capillary electrochromatography enantioseparations

In this study, the molecular imprinting method was used to separate enantiomeric forms of chiral antidepressant drug, R,S-citalopram (R,S-CIT) in aqueous solution by CEC system combining the advantages of capillary electrophoresis (CE) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). For that, an amino acid-based molecularly imprinted monolithic capillary column was designed and used as a stationary phase for selective separation of S-citalopram (S-CIT) for the first time. S-CIT was selectively separated from the aqueous solution containing the other enantiomeric form of R-CIT, which is the same in size and shape as the template molecule. Morphology of the molecularly imprinted (MIP S-CIT) and non-imprinted (NIP S-CIT) monolithic capillary columns was observed by scanning electron microscopy. Imprinting efficiency of MIP S-CIT monolithic capillary column used for selective S-CIT separation was verified by comparing with NIP S-CIT and calculated imprinting factor (I.F:1.81) proved the high selectivity of the MIP S-CIT for S-CIT. Cavities formed for S-CIT form enabled selective (α = 2.08) separation of the target molecule from the other enantiomeric R-CIT form. Separation was achieved in a short period of 10 min, with the electrophoretic mobility of 7.68 × 10⁻⁶ m²/Vs for R,S-CIT at pH 7.0 10 mM PB and 50% ACN ratio. The performance of both MIP S-CIT and NIP S-CIT columns was estimated by repeating the R,S-CIT separations with intra-batch and inter-batch studies for reproducibility of retention times of R,S-CITs. Estimated RSD values that are lower than 2% suggest that the monolithic columns separate R,S-CIT enantiomers without losing separation efficiency.