Separation of propranolol enantiomers through membranes based on chiral derivatized polysulfone

The characterization of new synthesized chiral polymeric membranes, based in polysulfone polymer is here reported. Polysulfone was derivatized to chiral polysulfone, by bonding covalently the chiral carrier, N-dodecyl-4(R)-hydroxy-l-proline, to the polymer matrix. Two different chiral polysulfones, referred to as CPSA and CPSB, have been synthesized and used in the preparation of chiral polymeric membranes. However, as a consequence of the limited CPSB solubility, only CPSA resulted adequate to obtain useful membranes. Therefore, various chiral polysulfone membranes containing different amounts of CPSA in unmodified polysulfone (PS) were prepared and properly characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and by enantioselective transport experiments of racemic propranolol. Dialysis transport experiments allowed us to determine the influence of the carrier content in the membrane on the transport rate and on enantiomer separation. Membranes containing a CPSA/PS ratio of 1:3 showed an alpha value of 1.1 at 96 h of performance. Modelling of the propranolol transport rate is also performed.