Direct chiral resolution of tartaric acid in food products by ligand exchange capillary electrophoresis using copper(II)–d-quinic acid as a chiral selector

Chiral resolution of native dl-tartaric acid was performed by ligand-exchange capillary electrophoresis using copper(II)–d-quinic acid as a chiral selector. Factors affecting chiral resolution, migration time, and peak area of tartaric acid were studied. The running conditions for optimum separation of tartaric acid were found to be 1 mM copper(II) sulfate–10 mM d-quinic acid (pH 5.0) with an effective voltage of −15 kV at 30°C, using direct detection at 250 nm, and resolution of racemic tartaric acid was approximately 1.3. With this system, chiral resolution of dl-tartaric acid in food products was conducted successfully.