Enantiomer separation of a powerful chiral auxiliary, 2-methoxy-2-(1-naphthyl)propionic acid by liquid chromatography using chiral anion exchanger-type stationary phases in polar-organic mode; investigation of molecular recognition aspects.

The enantiodiscriminating potential of the weak anion exchange-type quinine-based chiral stationary phases (CSPs) for direct enantiomer separation of racemic 2-methoxy-2-(1-naphthyl)propionic acid (selectand, SA) was studied. The influence of structure variations of the selector (SO) in the carbamate functional group and/or in the C6' position of quinoline moiety on retention and enantioselectivity was investigated. Systematic chromatographic studies were made to gain more insight into the overall chiral recognition mechanism for a given mobile phase. In this context, the tert-butylcarbamoyl quinine and the corresponding diisopropylphenyl-derived selector provided the highest resolution and enantioselectivity under polar-organic conditions with the elution order of (R) before the (S) enantiomer. When the bulkiness of the substituents in the C6' position of the SO was increased, the selectivity was decreased in all cases. Alkylation of the nitrogen atom in the carbamate functionality of the SO resulted in the complete loss of enantiomer separation, confirming the crucial importance of the hydrogen-bond formation involved in the stereodiscriminating events. In addition, ten different mono-, bi-, or trivalent acids, necessary as competitor molecules (counter-ions) of the mobile phase, were screened to judge their influence on retention and overall enantioselectivity. Among them, acetic acid, formic acid, N-acetylglycine, and glycolic acid proved to be the most promising counter-ions with R(S) values of 6.35, 6.81, 8.19, and 7.34, respectively. On the basis of chromatographic data, a tentative molecular recognition model was proposed. Simultaneous ion-pairing and hydrogen bonding, in concert with pi-pi stacking and steric interactions, were expected to be responsible for chiral recognition mechanism. This was partially corroborated by structural and/or conformational analysis of the tert-butylcarbamoyl quinine-2-methoxy-2-(1-naphthyl)propionic acid (SO-SA) complex.