Crystallization of amino acids at the chiral ionic liquid/water interface

Abstract

We describe the preparation and use of a chiral ionic liquid (CIL) derived from L-leucine for chiral crystallization at CIL/water interfaces. We utilize the CIL/water interfaces for the crystallization of amino acids from solutions. Our study demonstrates the potential application of CIL/water interfaces to control chiral crystallization kinetics, where one enantiomer crystallizes faster on CIL/water interfaces. Although we did not observe chiral resolution by selective crystallization on CIL/water interfaces, our results show that the crystallization kinetics can be controlled. We believe that the approach of using CIL/water interfaces for chiral crystallization, which we present here, may provide further insight into chiral crystallization in general and chiral crystallization at chiral interfaces in particular.