Analytical Chemistry and Chromatography

Many biologically active molecules — drugs, pesticides, fragrances — exist as mirror-image pairs called enantiomers that are chemically identical yet can behave very differently in living systems, where one form may be therapeutic and the other toxic or inert. Separating these pairs requires chromatographic techniques equipped with chiral stationary phases, materials engineered to interact asymmetrically with each mirror image so that the two forms travel through a column at different rates and can be individually measured or collected. Liquid chromatography methods such as HPLC and HILIC, alongside gas chromatography, have become the primary workhorses for this task, while two-dimensional chromatography has opened new routes for resolving complex mixtures where a single separation dimension falls short. Researchers are actively working to expand the chemical diversity of stationary phase materials, improve sensitivity for trace-level enantiomeric analysis, and better understand the molecular mechanisms that govern chiral recognition at the phase surface.

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Keywords

Chiral SeparationLiquid ChromatographyGas ChromatographyEnantiomersChiral Stationary PhasesHigh-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)