Enantiomeric separation of triazole fungicides with 3-μm and 5-μml particle chiral columns by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography.

This study used chiral columns packed with 3-μm and 5-μm particles to comparatively separate enantiomers of 9 triazole fungicides, and Lux Cellulose-1 columns with chiral stationary phase of cellulose-tris-(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) were used on reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with flow rates of 0.3 and 1.0 mL min(-1) for 3-μm and 5-μm columns, respectively. The (+)-enantiomers of hexaconazole (1), tetraconazole (4), myclobutanil (7), fenbuconazole (8) and the (-)-enantiomers of flutriafol (2), diniconazole (3), epoxiconazole (5), penconazole (6), triadimefon (9) were firstly eluted from both columns, the elution orders identified with an optical rotation detector didn't change with variety of column particles and mobile phases (acetronitrile/water and methanol/water). The plots of natural logarithms of the selectivity factors (ln α) for all fungicides except penconazole (6) versus the inverse of temperature (1/T) were linear in range of 5-40°C. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔH°, ΔS°, ΔΔH° and ΔΔS°) were calculated using Van't Hoff equations to understand the thermosynamic driving forces for enantioseparation. This work will be very helpful to obtain good enantiomeric separation and establish more efficient analytical method for triazole fungicides. Chirality, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc.