Abstract:
Chiral liquid chromatography is a field of utmost importance for a wide range of academic and industrial applications. Drug development, environmental analysis, laboratory-based diagnostics, or structure elucidation among others, strongly rely on chiral liquid chromatography nowadays. For this reason, this cumulative thesis describes the development and applications of chiral stationary phases for enantioselective (ultra-)high performance liquid chromatography ((U)HPLC). In the first part of the thesis, new chiral stationary phases (CSPs) based on anion-exchange and zwitterionic ion exchange chiral selectors were developed. The following goals were achieved during the work on this thesis: Various silica particles were evaluated for their kinetic performance optimization for enantioselective UHPLC and a deep insight into a variety of interactions between analyte and stationary phase was gained [Publication I]. The bonding chemistry and its generation by thermic or UV-driven radical starter was evaluated and systematically optimized by introducing a solvent-free photo-click immobilization strategy resulting in low-bleeding, “platform-type” stationary phases [Publication II]. Furthermore, the functionalization of bare silica, which can be seen as the starting point of the production of a CSP-based HPLC column, was varied and optimized for fast separations by the reduction of mass transfer resistance using silatranes and thus forming thin, homogeneous monolayer of thiol functionalization in a multiple-step [Publication III] and in a single-step approach [Publication IV].
The second part of the thesis focuses on the application of enantiomer separation. This includes the elaboration of the following aspects: Since chiral methods are becoming increasingly important in the fields of metabolomics and lipidomics, a guide for the chiral analysis of branched short-chain fatty acids based on polysaccharide columns was developed [Publication V]. Furthermore, the chirality of previously unknown natural compounds was elucidated [Publication VI]. A protocol for the enantiopurification of a radiotracer was established [Publication VII]. Knowledge about chiral HPLC was used for both analytical and preparative separation in the development of potential new drugs [Publications VIII and IX]. In summary, extensive research on the design, functionalization, synthesis, and evaluation of chiral stationary phases and their scope of applications has been performed.