Potential and current limitations of superficially porous silica as a carrier for polysaccharide-based chiral selectors in separation of enantiomers in high-performance liquid chromatography.

In this study superficially porous silica particles with a nominal pore size of 450 Å and average particle size of 2.6 micrometers was compared to fully porous silica particles with nominal particle size 3 micrometers and nominal pore size 1000 A as carriers for a polysaccharide based chiral selector for the separation of enantiomers in high-performance liquid chromatography. In addition, the effects of chiral selector loading onto the silica support and of column internal dimeter in the case of both, superficially porous and totally porous silica, as well as of the pore size of superficially porous silica on column performance were studied.

On our way to sub-second separations of enantiomers in high-performance liquid chromatography.

In this study our preliminary attempt for obtaining fast and highly efficient separations of enantiomers in high-performance liquid chromatography with slightly modified state-of-the-art commercial instrumentation is described. In order to reach this goal after careful selection of chiral analytes, the preparation of chiral stationary phase (CSP), mobile phase composition and column dimensions were optimized. The concept of segmented chiral-achiral column was introduced.