Temperature-induced inversion of the elution order of enantiomers in gas chromatography: N-ethoxycarbonyl propylamides and N-trifluoroacetyl ethyl esters of alpha-amino acids on Chirasil-Val-C11 and Chirasil-Dex stationary phases

Inversion of the elution order of enantiomers caused by enthalpy-entropy compensation at the isoenantioselective temperature (Tiso) was experimentally observed by gas chromatography on the diamide-type chiral stationary phase (CSP), Chirasil-L-Val-C11, with N-ethoxycarbonyl propylamide (ECPA) derivatives of a number of alpha-amino acids. For the first time, a clear visual representation of the increase of the apparent enantioseparation factor alpha app from 1.00 to 1.08 as the temperature is raised from 120 to 170 degrees C is presented. The increase of alpha app is accompanied by a concomitant reduction of the retention factors of the enantiomers. The Tiso values were in the range from 110 to 130 degrees C depending on the nature of the alpha-amino acid. On the contrary, the Tiso values of the N(O)-trifluoroacetyl ethyl ester derivatives (TFA-Et) of the same alpha-amino acids were approximately 80 degrees higher than that of ECPA derivatives. The comprehensive thermodynamic investigation of the enantioseparation of ECPA and TFA-Et derivatives of valine and alanine using the retention increment method showed that the Delta L,D(DeltaH) difference between the diastereomeric selector-selectand associates was almost the same for ECPA and TFA-Et derivatives despite a much stronger bonded selector-selectand association taking place for the ECPA derivatives. On the other hand, the Delta L,D(DeltaS) values were found to be more negative in the case of ECPA derivatives, resulting in the unusually low values of Tiso. A temperature-dependent inversion of the elution order of enantiomers was also observed on the cyclodextrin-type CSP, Chirasil-Dex, with TFA-Et derivatives of several alpha-amino acids. The Tiso values were in the range from 20 to 170 degrees C depending on the nature of the alpha-amino acid. The results obtained demonstrate the necessity to conduct temperature-dependent studies in order to optimize the enantiomeric separation of single racemates isothermally or of mixtures of racemates in temperature-programmed runs using enantioselective GC. It is also shown that consideration of the elution order of enantiomers and the value of the apparent enantioseparation factor alpha app alone, without performing temperature-dependent measurements, can easily lead to wrong conclusions regarding the enantiorecognition mechanism.