Investigations of mobile phase contributions to enantioselective anion- and zwitterion-exchange modes on quinine-based zwitterionic chiral stationary phases

Novel chiral stationary phases (CSPs) based on zwitterionic Cinchona alkaloid-type low-molecular mass chiral selectors (SOs), as they have been reported recently, were investigated in HPLC towards effects on their chromatographic behavior by mobile phase composition. Mobile phase characteristics like acid-to-base ratio and type of acidic and basic additives as well as effect of type of bulk solvents in nonaqueous polar organic and aqueous reversed-phase (RP) eluent systems were varied in order to illustrate the variability and applicability of zwitterionic CSPs with regard to mobile phase aspects. Chiral SOs of the five zwitterionic CSPs investigated herein contained weak and strong cation-exchange (WCX, SCX) sites at C9- and C6′-positions of the Cinchona alkaloid scaffold which itself accommodated the weak anion-exchange (WAX) site. The study focused on zwitterion-exchange (ZX) operational mode and chiral amino acids as target analytes. Besides, also the anion-exchange (AX) mode for chiral N-blocked amino acid analytes was considered, because of the intramolecular counterion (IMCI) property available in AX mode. Overall, most general and successful conditions in ZX mode were found to be weakly acidic methanolic mobile phases. In aqueous eluents RP contributions to retention came into play but only at low organic modifier content because of the highly polar character of zwitterionic analytes. At higher acetonitrile content, HILIC-related retention phenomena were observed. When using weakly basic eluent system in AX mode remarkably fast enantiomer separations involving exclusion phenomena were possible with one enantiomer eluting before and the other after void volume.