Covalent bonding of homochiral metal-organic framework in capillaries for stereoisomer separation by capillary electrochromatography.

In this work, a [Cu(mal)(bpy)]⋅H2O (mal, L-(-)-malic acid; bpy, 4,4'-bipyridyl) homochiral metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) was synthesized and used for modifying the inner walls of capillary columns by utilizing amido bonds to form covalent links between the MOFs particles and capillary inner wall. The synthesized [Cu(mal)(bpy)]⋅H2 O and MOFs-modified capillary column were characterized by X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, particle size distribution analysis, nitrogen absorption characterization, FTIR spectroscopy, SEM, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The MOFs-modified capillary column was used for the stereoisomer separation of some drugs. The LODs and LOQs of six analytes were 0.1 and 0.25 μg/mL, respectively. The linear range was 0.25-250 μg/mL for ephedrine, 0.25-250 μg/mL for pseudoephedrine, 0.25-180 μg/mL for D-penicillamine, 0.25-120 μg/mL for L-penicillamine, 0.25-180 μg/mL for D-phenylalanine, and 0.25-160 μg/mL for L-phenylalanine, all with R(2) > 0.999. Finally, the MOFs-modified capillary column was applied for the analysis of active ingredients in a real sample of the traditional Chinese medicine ephedra.