| Abstract: | β‐Cyclodextrin (β‐CD) is negligibly soluble in organic liquids and can be modified to achieve a higher solubility in water. In this paper, racemic α‐cyclohexyl‐mandelic acid (α‐CHMA) was separated by chiral reactive extraction with aqueous β‐cyclodextrin derivatives. Hydroxypropyl‐β‐cyclodextrin (HP‐β‐CD), hydroxyethyl‐β‐cyclodextrin (HE‐β‐CD), and methyl‐β‐cyclodextrin (Me‐β‐CD) were selected as chiral selectors for reactive extraction of α‐CHMA enantiomers from organic phase to aqueous phase. Factors affecting the extraction efficiency were investigated, including the types of organic solvents and β‐CD derivatives, the concentrations of the chiral selector and α‐CHMA enantiomers, pH and temperature. The experimental results demonstrate that HP‐β‐CD, HE‐β‐CD, and Me‐β‐CD have stronger recognition abilities for S‐α‐CHMA than for R‐α‐CHMA. Among the three derivatives, HP‐β‐CD shows the strongest separation factor for α‐CHMA enantiomers. A high enantioseparation efficiency with a maximum separation factor (α) of 2.02 is observed at pH 2.5 and 5°C. |
