Enantiomeric separations of α-aryl ketones with cyclofructan chiral stationary phases via high performance liquid chromatography and supercritical fluid chromatography

• HPLC and SFC chiral separation of α-aryl ketones with cyclofructan stationary phase.
• Development of structure–separation relationships (SSR).
• Base-induced enantiomerization of α-aryl ketones on cyclofructan stationary phase.
• Ultrafast chiral separations of α-aryl ketones using superficially porous particles.

Normal phase chiral HPLC and SFC methods are presented for the enantiomeric separation of 21 α-aryl ketones with a unique class of chiral stationary phases (CSPs) based on cyclofructans (CFs). Separations were achieved for all but 2 analytes, with 17 compounds attaining baseline separation having resolution values up to 4.0. Most separations obtained in HPLC could be transferred to SFC, but the HPLC resolutions were generally better due to greater enantiomeric selectivity values. A structure–separation relationship (SSR) was developed to identify important structural features for separation of this class of compounds using CF-based CSPs. Preliminary studies are also presented that demonstrate the utility of the CF CSPs to investigate the base-induced enantiomerization of α-aryl ketones. It was demonstrated that even small amounts of base (0.01% v/v) in the mobile phase results in rapid, on-column, enantiomerization. Lastly, CSPs composed of superficially porous particles were used to achieve comparable separations of this class of chiral compounds, but at a fraction of the analysis time compared to CSPs composed of fully porous particles.