Optimum operating conditions for chiral separations in liquid chromatography

Abstract

The effects of solvent composition and temperature on the retention and resolution of the (S)- and (R)- enantiomers of 4-benzyl-2-oxazolidinone are reported. The data obtained is used to assess the effect of solvent composition and temperature on the efficiency required to effect the separation, the minimum variance per unit length of the column, the optimum velocity, the optimum column length and the analysis time. It is shown that although the two variables, temperature and solvent composition, are independent, their effects on retention interact and the net result on selectivity and analysis time is complex and unexpected.