Enantioseparation of ß-carboline derivatives on polysaccharide- and strong cation exchanger-based chiral stationary phases. A comparative study

• Enantioseparations of ß-carboline derivatives were achieved on different types of chiral columns.
• Enthalpy-controlled enantiodiscriminations were observed in all cases.
• With different enantiomeric selectors, the sequence of elution can be adjusted.

In this study we attempted to describe in a comparative manner the enantioselectivity performance of six different polysaccharide- and two strong cation exchanger-type chiral stationary phases (CSPs) for the resolution of free and N-protected β-carboline derivatives. On commercially available cellulose- or amylose-based CSPs, the enantioseparations were carried out in normal-phase mode by variation of the nature and the concentration of the alcohol modifier in n-hexane as mobile phase. With the application of strong cation exchanger-type CSPs, the enantioseparations were optimized by the variation of methanol-acetonitrile bulk solvent compositions in the presence of various amounts of acid and base additives acting as counter-ions. Detailed thermodynamic investigations revealed that in all cases the enantioseparations observed were enthalpically driven, i.e. the retention and selectivity decreased with increasing temperature. Elution sequences were determined routinely; no general rule was found on polysaccharide-based CSPs, while on the two enantiomeric strong cation exchanger-type CSPs the predicted reversal of the elution sequence could be confirmed on switching from one enantiomeric CSP to the other form.