Abstract
Ionic liquids are widely used as recyclable reaction and extraction media due to their unique properties. If chirality can be synergized with the salt properties, various enantiomeric applications would be emerged. It is a typical instance that chiral discrimination as an extraction medium. Herein we report a chiral ionic liquid possessing two hydroxy groups on the chiral center with which chiral molecular extraction can be effectively conducted. Introducing the hydrophilic group into the widely used imidazolinium moiety results in dissolving itself into water. The miscibility with aqueous phase is a fatal defect for extraction. Fortunately we found a heterocycle module was hydrophobic enough to be immiscible with water even though the presence of hydroxy group on a chiral center. This ionic liquid shows enantiomeric extraction for racemic mixture of amino acids. A set of HPLC, 1H-NMR and NOESY-NMR data will be discussed.
