Enantiomeric impurities in chiral catalysts, auxiliaries, and synthons used in enantioselective syntheses. Part 4

The enantiomeric purity of chiral reagents used in asymmetric syntheses directly affects the apparent reaction selectivity and the product’s enantiomeric excess. Herein, 46 recently available chiral compounds were evaluated in order to determine their actual enantiomeric compositions. They have not been assayed previously and/or have been introduced after 2006, when the last comprehensive evaluation of commercially available chiral compounds was reported. These compounds are widely used in asymmetric syntheses as chiral synthons, catalysts, and auxiliaries. The enantioselective analysis methods include HPLC approaches using Chirobiotic, Cyclobond and LARIHC series chiral stationary phases, and GC approaches using Chiraldex chiral stationary phases. Accurate, efficient assays for selected compounds are given. All enantiomeric test results were categorized within five impurity levels (i.e., <0.01%, 0.01–0.1%, 0.1–1%, 1–10% and >10%). Different batches of the same reagent from the same company can have different levels of enantiomeric impurities. Many of the reagents tested were found to have less than 0.1% enantiomeric impurities. Only one of the chiral compounds was found to have an enantiomeric impurity exceeding 10%.

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