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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Preparation of Enantiopure Non-Activated Aziridines and Synthesis of Biemamide B, D, and epiallo-Isomuscarine
Published on: June 13, 2022
Fast methods of enantiopurity determination for the Soai reaction: towards a general enantioenrichment detector?
Christopher J Welch1, Mirlinda Biba, Peter Sajonz
1Analysis and Preparative Separations Group, Department of Process Research, Merck Research Laboratories, Merck & Co., Inc, NJ 07065, USA. christopher_welch@merck.com
Abstract:
The Soai reaction system possesses a remarkable combination of characteristics (enantioselective autocatalysis, strong positive nonlinearity leading to asymmetric amplification, ability to be triggered by wide variety of exogenous enantioenriched materials) that make it a potential starting point for a generalized detector for enantioenrichment. In this study we apply standard approaches used in pharmaceutical process research to the problem of developing a rapid method for analysis of the enantiopurity of the Soai reaction product. Several methods for rapid analysis (<1 min per sample) are described, including an approach using chiral supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) and an approach using achiral chromatography with circular dichroism (CD) detection. Some thoughts on incorporation into a device for generalized enantioenrichment detection are presented.
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