Investigation of the adsorption behaviour of a chiral model compound on a tartardiamide-based network-polymeric chiral stationary phase

The adsorption behaviour of the enantiomers of 2-phenylbutyric acid on the chiral stationary phase (CSP) Kromasil CHI-TBB was studied using hexane/MTBE (90/10) as eluent. Adsorption isotherms were acquired at 40 different enantiomer concentrations in the interval between 7.6 μM and 305 mM, an approximately 40,000-fold dynamic range. The adsorption data fitted well to the bi-Langmuir model, indicating a heterogeneous surface with two different types of adsorption sites having different equilibrium constants and capacities; namely one chiral site and one non-chiral site. A comparison with earlier adsorption studies on modern CSPs revealed that the capacity value of the “true” chiral site of Kromasil CHI-TBB is the largest reported so far. The elution profiles simulated with these parameters show excellent agreement with the corresponding experimental profiles. Guidelines for comparisons of loading capacities of CSPs are presented.