The Pursuit of Chiral Anion Exchange-Type Selectors: From Concept to Application

The major progress achieved in liquid phase enantiomer separation technology and its crucial contributions to modern drug development efforts is well documented [1]. With drug discovery trends increasingly focusing on more polar “bio-like” target compounds, unmet needs concerning the resolution of polar ionizable and/or permanently charged chiral compounds are becoming apparent. Most of the established chiral stationary phases show poor chiral recognition performance for charged compounds, a situation that is often exacerbated by solubility issues, mobile phase incompatibilities and general lack of retention. In most cases, basic or acidic additives have to be used to suppress the ionic character of charged compounds to achieve efficient enantiomer separation, adding considerable levels of complexity and compromise to analytical and preparative method development.