Gas chromatographic separation of saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon enantiomers on permethylated ?-cyclodextrin

Abstract

Enantiomers of chiral aliphatic hydrocarbons are generally difficult to separate because they lack functional groups to be derivatized in order to generate diastereomers. The systematic and quantitative separation of a series of branched hydrocarbon enantiomers using a chiral cyclodextrin stationary phase and a cryostat-controlled gas chromatograph is described. The use of a cryogenic system allows the improvement of separations for various chiral aliphatic hydrocarbons. The molecular cyclodextrin-based mechanism of the achieved enantiomeric separations is discussed briefly. Possible applications of this analytical technique are summarized, with special emphasis on the planned enantiomeric separation experiment on a cometary nucleus.