Enantiomeric separation is one of the most important research themes in analytical chemistry, especially in the pharmaceutical field. A large number of drugs, which have one or more asymmetric centers, exist as a couple of enantiomers. Since the pharmacological activity and metabolism of two enantiomers of a certain drug may very often differ, enantioselective analytical methods are required for chiral purity control, pharmacokinetic studies and other work. During the last decade, tremendous efforts have been expended to develop enantiomeric separation methods. Important advances have been achieved with HPLC, gas chromatography and capillary electrophoresis (CE). In particular, CE is attractive because of its advantages of high efficiency, relatively short analysis time and minimal sample volume requirement.Capillary electrochromatography (CEC), which is in essence a hybrid of HPLC and CE and is based on a fascinating new chromatographic concept 1 , has become increasingly popular. CEC is a powerful separation method which affords a higher theoretical plate number and superior efficiency due to its flat flow profile, compared with micro-HPLC which uses the same packing material. The separation mechanism of neutral compounds in CEC is the same as that of HPLC in principle, with separations essentially resulting from differences in the partitioning of solutes between a mobile phase and a stationary phase.Currently, capillaries packed with the typical stationary phase for HPLC are still used in the majority of CEC studies. However, monolithic stationary phases 2-8 , which are ungranular polymeric separation media, are increasingly gaining attention due to their simple preparation method, wide varieties of functionalization and better stability. Very recently, the enantiomeric separation of N-(3,5-dinitrobenzoyl)leucine diallylamide was obtained using monolithic chiral stationary phases for CEC prepared within the confines of untreated fused-silica capillaries by the direct copolymerization of the chiral monomer 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (N-L-valine-3,5-dimethylanilide) carbamate with ethylene dimethacrylate, 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid and butyl or glycidyl methacrylate in the presence of a porogenic solvent. 9 In our previous paper 10 , the enantiomeric separations of cationic and neutral compounds by CEC using a charged polyacrylamide gel as a monolithic stationary phase, in which polymeric β-cyclodextrins (β-CD) as chiral selectors are immobilized by incorporation, were reported. Unfortunately, no enantiomeric separation was achieved using monomeric β-CD, because it was eluted out of the capillary column by electroosmotic flow (EOF) to the cathodic solution during preelectrophoresis.In this paper, successful enantiomeric separations of cationic and neutral compounds by CEC using charged polyacrylamide gels to which allyl carbamoylated β-CD derivatives (AC-β -CD) covalently bind as monomeric β-CD are reported.
ExperimentalApparatus CEC experiments were carried out at room temperature (approximatel...