Recent development of cationic cyclodextrins for chiral separation

• The development of cationic cyclodextrins as mobile phases for chiral separation.
• The development of structurally defined cationic cyclodextrins for chiral separation.
• We summarize approaches to revealing the chiral recognition mechanism.
• Exploring cationic cyclodextrin-based stationary phases for chiral separation.

Cationic cyclodextrins (CDs) have attracted considerable interest in the field of chiral separation. Targeting effective modulation of the interactions between chiral selectors and analytes for enhanced chiral recognition, a growing library of positively charged CDs has been developed for different analytical techniques. This review updates the research endeavors of synthetic and analytical chemists in evaluating enantioselectivity of cationic CDs using different analytical methods and the study of the chiral recognition mechanism. We pay specific attention to the structurally defined cationic CDs, which have been explored for versatile chiral separation in a variety of techniques when subject to further modification.