Synthesis of chiral stationary phases with radical polymerization reaction of cellulose phenylcarbamate derivatives and vinylized silica gel

Cellulose phenylcarbamate derivatives having methacrylate groups were synthesized with regioselective and non-regioselective procedures. These derivatives were chemically immobilized onto a vinylized silica gel, respectively, via a radical co-polymerization reaction. The immobilization was efficiently attained using a small amount of AIBN. The chiral recognition abilities of the prepared chiral stationary phases (CSPs) were evaluated by HPLC resolution of test enantiomers. It was observed that most of the enantiomers were completely resolved with markedly high column efficiency of 30,000–40,000 plates per metre for the eluted peaks. The effect of the amount of methacrylolyl chloride used for preparation on resolution was investigated. A direct comparison of the chiral recognition ability was made on the regioselectively and non-regioselectively prepared CSPs. In addition, the chemically bonded-type of CSPs were found to be relatively stable with addition of solvents such as tetrahydrofuran (THF) and chloroform into the mobile phase, which can lead to the dissolution of cellulose derivatives on the coated CSPs. Thus the choice of solvents used as the mobile phase is greatly extended and better resolution of several test enantiomers was observed on the prepared CSPs with THF and chloroform as a composition in the mobile phase. The batch-to-batch and run-to-run reproducibility was also discussed on the newly prepared CSPs.