HPLC separation of enantiomers of chiral arylpropionic acid derivatives using polysaccharide-based chiral columns and normal-phase eluents with emphasis on elution order.

The separation of enantiomers of ten chiral arylpropionic acid derivatives was studied on six different polysaccharide-based chiral HPLC columns with various normal-phase eluents. Along with the successful separation of analyte enantiomers, the emphasis of this study was on the effect of the chiral selector and mobile phase composition as well as of the separation temperature on the elution order of enantiomers. The interesting phenomena of reversal of enantiomer elution order function of the polysaccharide backbone (cellulose or amylose), type of derivative (carbamate or benzoate), nature and position of the substituent(s) in the phenylcarbamate moiety, the polar modifier of the mobile phase (ethanol or 2-propanol), its content in the mobile phase, and separation temperature were investigated. In addition, an unusual increase in retention with increasing temperature was observed for some arylpropionic acid derivatives.