Recent advancements and future directions of superficially porous chiral stationary phases for ultrafast high-performance enantioseparations

Abstract

This review focuses on the use of superficially porous particles (SPPs) as chiral stationary phases for ultra-high performance liquid enantioseparations. In contrast to what happened in achiral separations where core–shell particles invaded the market, the introduction of SPPs in chiral liquid chromatography (LC) has been relatively recent. This is due in part to the technical difficulties in the preparation of these phases, and in part to scarce understanding of mass transfer phenomena in chiral chromatography. As a matter of fact, nowadays, the development of superficially porous CSPs is still in its infancy. This paper covers the most recent advancements in the field of core–shell technology applied to chiral separations. We review the kinds of chiral selectors that have been used for the preparation of these phases, by discussing the advantages of chiral SPPs over their fully-porous counterparts for high efficient high throughput enantioseparations. Notwithstanding the apparently obvious advantages in terms of the mass transfer of chiral SPPs, some critical aspects that could impact their development are presented.