Effects of supercritical fluid chromatography conditions on enantioselectivity and performance of polyproline-derived chiral stationary phases

• Polyproline chiral selectors show similar enantiorecognition in LC and SFC.
• Higher efficiencies result in CO2/ethanol than in CO2/2-PrOH.
• Shorter analysis time is obtained in SFC conditions.
• Monolithic columns provide better performance in SFC than bead-based counterparts.

The chromatographic behaviour and performance of four polyproline-derived chiral stationary phases (CSPs) were tested using supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC). A series of structurally related racemic compounds, whose enantioseparation was proved to be sensitive to the type of mobile phase used in NP-HPLC, were chosen to be tested in the SFC conditions. Good enantioselection ability was shown by the CSPs for the analytes tested in the new conditions. Resolution, efficiency and analysis time, were considerably improved with respect to NP-HPLC when CO2/alcohol mobile phases were used. Monolithic columns clearly show enhanced chromatographic parameters and improved performance respect to their bead-based counterparts.