Preparation and characterization of a new open-tubular capillary column for enantioseparation by capillary electrochromatography

In order to use the enantioseparation capability of cationic cyclodextrin and to combine the advantages of capillary electrochromatography (CEC) with open-tubular (OT) column, in this study, a new OT-CEC, coated with cationic cyclodextrin (1-allylimidazolium-β-cyclodextrin [AI-β-CD]) as chiral stationary phase (CSP), was prepared and applied for enantioseparation. Synthesized AI-β-CD was characterized by infrared (IR) spectrometry and mass spectrometry (MS). The preparation conditions for the AI-β-CD-coated column were optimized with the orthogonal experiment design L 9 (3 4 ). The column prepared was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and elemental analysis (EA). The results showed that the thickness of stationary phase in the inner surface of the AI-β-CD-coated columns was about 0.2 to 0.5 μm. The AI-β-CD content in stationary phase based on the EA was approximately 2.77 mmol·m −2 . The AI-β-CD-coated columns could separate all 14 chiral compounds (histidine, lysine, arginine, glutamate, aspartic acid, cysteine, serine, valine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, salbutamol, atenolol, ibuprofen, and napropamide) successfully in the study and exhibit excellent reproducibility and stability. We propose that the column, coated with AI-β-CD, has a great potential for enantioseparation in OT-CEC.