Development of Columns for Liquid-Chromatographic Chiral Separation by Use of Optically Active Polymers

Abstract

The authors found out that some polymethacrylate esters and polysaccharide derivatives exhibited good chiral recognition as a stationary phase for liquid chromatography. By coating these polymers on silica gel, practically useful HPLC columns were developed and twelve ones have been marketed. Then a preparative liquid chromatography system equipped with a large scale chiral separation column was also established and the commercial optical resolution service by HPLC was started for the first time in the world.
In this account, some technological and scientific points in the development and the scope for the further development are described.