Chiral ionic liquids as stationary phases in gas chromatography

Recently, it has been found that room-temperature ionic liquids can be used as stable, unusual selectivity stationary phases. They show "dual nature" properties, in that they separate nonpolar compounds as if they are nonpolar stationary phases and separate polar compounds as if they are polar stationary phases. Extending ionic liquids to the realm of chiral separations can be done in two ways: (1) a chiral selector can be dissolved in an achiral ionic liquid, or (2) the ionic liquid itself can be chiral. There is a single precedent for the first approach, but nothing has been reported for the second approach. In this work, we present the first enantiomeric separations using chiral ionic liquid stationary phases in gas chromatography. Compounds that have been separated using these ionic liquid chiral selectors include alcohols, diols, sulfoxides, epoxides, and acetylated amines. Because of the synthetic nature of these chiral selectors, the configuration of the stereogenic center can be controlled and altered for mechanistic studies and reversing enantiomeric retention.