Efficient preparative separation of β-cypermethrin stereoisomers by supercritical fluid chromatography with a two-step combined strategy.

An efficient two-step method has been developed for the separation of β-cypermethrin stereoisomers by supercritical fluid chromatography with polysaccharide chiral stationary phases. With respect to retention, selectivity, and resolution of β-cypermethrin, the effects of chiral stationary phases, cosolvents, mobile phases, and column temperature have been studied in detail. Through a two-step separation, β-cypermethrin was firstly separated by using a cellulose-derived chiral stationary phase to obtain two stereoisomeric pairs, and further resolved on an amylose-based chiral stationary phase to produce four enantiopure stereoisomers. The electronic circular dichroism patterns of the first- and the third-eluted isomers in methanol solution showed the mirror image of each other in the wavelength range 200∼300 nm, indicating that they were a pair of enantiomers. Moreover, the second- and the fourth-eluted isomers were also enantiomers. This proposed two-step strategy showed low solvent consumption, fast separation speed, and high-purity, which may provide an effective approach for preparative separation of compounds with multiple chiral centers and difficult-to-separate multicomponent samples.