A Closer Study Of Chiral Retention Mechanisms

The retention mechanisms and the separation of enantiomers on the classes of chiral stationary phases which are made by bonding isolated groups on the surface of an adsorbent are discussed. It is shown that retention on these phases originates from mixed mechanisms and how the individual contributions of these two mechanisms can be separated, by determining and modeling the equilibrium isotherms. A contribution originating from interactions of the isomers with the nonselective sites (type-I) and another one due to interactions with the enantioselective sites (type-II) can be determined and their importance studied as a function of several parameters, e.g., temperature or pH. This approach is illustrated with results obtained with different pairs of enantiomers on bovine serum albumin, 4-methylcellulose tribenzoate, or cellobiohydrolase immobilized on silica.