IntroductionIn recent years, the synthesis of chiral tetrahedrane-type clusters has been extensively studied, and various types have become accessible, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] which are a kind of organometallic compounds receiving greatly growing interest due to their potential application to asymmetric reaction catalysts. [11][12][13][14] Using a framework chirality cluster as an asymmetric reaction catalyst would not only bring a basic conceptual breakthrough in asymmetric catalysis, in which the most asymmetric induction originates from the central or planar chirality of the P or N ligand, but would also extend the methodology in the designs of new chiral catalysts. The major remaining problem is to separate them into enantiomers. The traditional method for enantioseparation was to change the chiral clusters into diastereoisomers by column chromatography (CC) or thin-layer chromatography (TLC), even though it was time-consuming and inefficient. 15 Furthermore, the auxiliary optically active group could not be removed without destroying of the cluster 16 after enantioseparation.HPLC is one of the efficient techniques for enantioseparation, which requires mild separation conditions. If the tetrahedral cluster enantiomers could be separated directly without derivatization by HPLC on a chiral stationary phase (CSP), destruction of the cluster would be avoided. There are various types of chiral stationary phases presently available, among which polysaccharide-based CSPs have been proved to be quite versatile. A wide variety of enantiomeric compounds, including chiral aromatic alcohols, enantiomeric amides, pyriproxyfen, and amino alcohols, have been separated on these CSPs.
17During the past two years, our laboratory has paid great attention to the enantioseparation of chiral tetrahedrane-type metal clusters, and some satisfactory results have been obtained. So far, several CSPs have been prepared and applied to the enantioseparation these compounds, and more than 50 pairs chiral tetralhedrane-type clusters have been successfully resolved up to now. These CSPs included ATPC-coated SiO2, 18 CDMPC-coated SiO2, [19][20][21]22 where CDMPC means cellulose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) and ATPC means amylose tris(phenylcarbamate). It was found that the chiral stationary phases based on traditional silica were superior to those ZrO2-based chromatographic stationary phases; moreover, the cellulose-based and amylose-based chiral stationary phases have very broad and complementary enantiorecognition properties. 23 In the present work, the enantioseparation of novel chiral tetrahedrane-type clusters was achieved with amylose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) as a chiral stationary phase. The retention factors (k′), separation factors (α), and the resolutions (Rs) under different mobile phases were compared. The effect of a structural variation of the solutes on their enantioseparation was also investigated. Until now, the direct enantioseparation of chiral tetrahedrane-type clusters on amylose ADMPC-CSP has not b...