Enantioseparation of underivatised amino acids by ligand exchange capillary electrophoresis in a counter-electroosmotic mode.

Enantiomer separations of underivatised amino acids were carried out by using ligand exchange capillary electrophoresis (LECE). Chiral discrimination is based on the formation of ternary complexes between copper(II), a chiral selector (L-proline or trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline) and an amino acid. All amino acids containing aromatic moieties or not were detected at 214 nm because of their interactions with copper(II).