Theoretical reassessment of Whelk-O1 as an enantioselective receptor for 1-(4-halogeno-phenyl)-1-ethylamine derivatives.

A combination of molecular mechanics and first principles calculations was used to explore the enantioselectivity of receptors, taking into account experimental data from the CHIRBASE database. Interactions between the Whelk-O1 HPLC chiral stationary phase with the complete series of 1-(4-halogeno-phenyl)-1-ethylamine derivative racemates were studied. The objective was to extract information from the interactions between the chiral Whelk-O1 stationary phase and the enantiomers, hence probing the origin of the enantioselective behavior. Calculations correctly reproduce the elution orders and reasonably describe the experimental enantioselectivities and retention factors. Different binding modes were observed for the first eluted enantiomer complexes, whereas the second eluted show only one prevalent diastereomeric binding fashion. Natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis was used on the global minima bound-complexes to quantify donor-acceptor interactions among chiral stationary phase and ligand moieties. Intermolecular hydrogen bonding was found to be the essential energetic interaction for all systems studied. CH-pi, aromatic stacking and various charge transfer interactions were found to be smaller in magnitude but still important for the global enantioselective behavior. The three-point interaction model is discussed, pointing out the difficulty of its application for the qualitative prediction of elution orders (absolute configurations). Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.