Chiral liquid chromatography-circular dichroism-NMR for estimating separation conditions of chiral HPLC without...

Chiral separation by high performance liquid chromatography (Chiral HPLC) is one of the most powerful methods for estimating optical and chemical purity of chiral compounds. However, it has a weakness in that much time and effort are required to prepare authentic samples. A novel chiral liquid chromatography-circular dichroism-NMR (LC-CD-NMR) technique, on the other hand, requires only crude chiral compounds that include enantiomers as minor impurities. In this study, chiral LC-CD-NMR was constructed by connecting a conventional LC-NMR system with a CD detector. A pyridylalanine derivative mixture was prepared to mimic technical grade material in an early phase of development. By chiral LC-CD-NMR, the enantiomer peak is identified by an opposite sign of the CD Cotton effect curve and an identical (1)H NMR spectrum to that of the main component. Using NMR as a detector, this method is superior in ability to discriminate enantiomers from other isomers indistinguishable by MS. Furthermore, this method is also applicable for selecting the best separation conditions of chiral HPLC. The degrees of separation (Rs) between the main component and its enantiomer in several chiral columns were compared. Even with modern chromatographic methods, establishing the best chiral HPLC conditions in an early phase of development is difficult: chiral LC-CD-NMR is a suitable solution.