Chiral separation of amino acids and glycyl dipeptides by chiral ligand-exchange capillary electrophoresis comparing Cu(II), Co(II), Ni(II) and Zn(II) complexes of three different sugar acids.

This paper deals with comparative studies on the use of copper(II), cobalt(II), nickel(II) and zinc(II) complexes of d-gluconic acid, d-saccharic acid and l-threonic acid as chiral selectors for the enantioseparation of aromatic amino acids and glycyl dipeptides using the principle of ligand-exchange capillary electrophoresis. Although copper(II) is the most frequently used central ion in ligand-exchange capillary electrophoresis, in the case of d-gluconic acid cobalt(II) was shown to be an alternative for the enantioseparation of amino acids. Glycyl dipeptides, however, were resolved only with copper(II) complexes. Zn(II) as a central ion was not effective in all cases and with Ni(II) only some partial separations were achieved.