Performance comparison of chiral separation materials derived from N-cyclohexylcarbonyl and N-hexanoyl chitosans.

Chitosan bis(phenylcarbamate)-(N-cyclohexylformamide)s and chitosan bis(phenylcarbamate)-(N-hexanamide)s were synthesized as chiral selectors for enantiomeric separation. Since two types of substituents with different structures were, respectively, introduced onto the 2-position and the 3-/6-positions of the glucose skeleton in the chitosans through a "heterogeneous" modification pathway, the enantioseparation performances of the chiral selectors could be improved. Influence of the type and position of the substituents on chiral recognition and enantioseparation abilities was studied in detail, and the structural dependence on enantioseparation performance was particularly demonstrated. It was found that methyl- and chloro-substituted chitosan bis(phenylcarbamate)-(N-hexanamide)s possessed comparable enantioseparation performances, whereas chloro-substituted chitosan bis(phenylcarbamate)-(N-cyclohexylformamide)s exhibited much more powerful chiral recognition and enantioseparation abilities than the methyl-substituted ones. Among all the prepared chiral selectors, those with the combination of the cyclohexyl group at the 2-position of the glucose skeleton in the chitosan derivatives and the chlorophenyl group at the 3-/6-positions seemed to be more preferable for enantiomeric separation. As a result, the chitosan bis(3,4-dichlorophenylcarbamate)-(N-cyclohexylformamide) possessed the best enantioseparation performance. The solvent tolerability of the prepared chiral selectors was also investigated in the present study. Compared with the classical coated-type chiral separation materials derived from cellulose/amylose derivatives, the N-cyclohexylcarbonyl and N-hexanoyl chitosans based chiral stationary phases were observed to possess more favorable solvent tolerability, thus possibly widening their applications for various practical enantioseparations.

N-Acylated chitosan bis(arylcarbamate)s: A class of promising chiral separation materials with powerful enantioseparation capability and high eluents tolerability.

In order to comprehensively understand the influence of coordination of the substituent at 2-position with those at 3- and 6-positions on the properties of chitosan derivatives, a series of chitosan 3,6-bis(arylcarbamate)-2-(amide)s (CACAs) and the related chiral stationary phases (CSPs) were prepared and reported in the present study. Specifically, chitosan was N-acylated with carboxylic acid anhydrides, and then further derivatized with various aryl isocyanates to afford CACAs, from which a class of coated-type CSPs were prepared. When the substituent introduced on the acyl group at 2-position and those on the phenyl group of the carbamates at 3- and 6-positions were fittingly combined, these prepared CACAs based CSPs would exhibit powerful chiral recognition ability, further resulting in a class of promising chiral separation materials with excellent enantioseparation performance. Meanwhile, these newly developed materials with suitable molecular weight also bear a high tolerability towards organic solvents, even including pure tetrahydrofuran, thus broadening their application in enantiomeric separation.

Enantioseparation characteristics of biselector chiral stationary phases based on derivatives of cellulose and amylose.

Cellulose tris(4-methylphenylcarbamate) (CMPC) and cellulose tris(4-chlorophenylcarbamate) (CCPC) are well known for their powerful chiral recognition capability, and the chiral columns prepared from these two polymers have been commercialized. However, the chiral stationary phases (CSPs) can be only used in the mobile phases containing no more than 20% ethanol (referring to CMPC) or cannot be used in ethanol-containing mobile phases (referring to CCPC). In order to overcome the defect and to study the enantioseparation characteristics of biselector CSPs, CMPC, cellulose tris(phenylcarbamate) (CPC) and CCPC were, respectively, mixed with amylose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamte) (ADMPC) at a ratio of 1:1 (mol/mol) of glucose unit, and three new CSPs were prepared by coating the resulting blends on 3-aminopropyl silica gel. For the purpose of enantioseparation comparison, the corresponding single selector CSPs were also prepared with the individual derivatives of cellulose and amylose. The enantioseparation evaluation indicated that the biselector CSPs still bear excellent enantioseparation capability. The interaction between two polymers in each blend was investigated by using circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy. Owing to the interaction, the durability of the biselector CSP derived from CMPC and ADMPC was significantly improved. The CSP could be analyzed with a mobile phase of 100% ethanol. And the biselector CSP derived from CCPC and ADMPC could safely work in a normal phase containing 30% ethanol. Therefore, the workable ranges of the mobile phases were broadened. The elution order on the biselector CSPs was generally dominated by the one on the corresponding single selector CSPs that provided a higher resolution. In addition, the suprastructure variation caused by the interaction between the individual polymers might also affect the enantioseparation of the biselector CSPs. The trends of the retention factors and the resolutions of partially racemic mixtures were discussed.