Purification of Enantiomeric Mixtures in Enantioselective Synthesis: Overlooked Errors and Scientific Basis of Separation in Achiral Environment

The syntheses of optically active compounds (whether of pharmaceutical or synthetic importance, or as promising candidates as chiral ligands and auxiliaries in asymmetric syntheses) result in the formation of a mixture of products with one enantiomer predominating. Usually, the practice is to use standard open-column chromatography for the first purification step in an enantioselective synthesis; the workup of the reaction product by crystallization or achiral chromatography would mask the real efficiency of the enantioselective methodology, since enantiomeric ratio (er) of the product may change by any of these methods. Most of the synthetic organic chemists are aware of the influence of crystallization on the er value. Majority of synthetic organic chemists are, however, not aware, while employing standard chromatography, that there may be an increase or decrease of er value. In other words, an undesired change in er goes unnoticed when such a mixture of enantiomers is isolated by chromatography on an achiral-phase because of the prevalent concept of basic stereochemistry. Such unnoticed errors in enantioselective reactions may lead to misinterpretations of the enantioselective outcome of the synthesis. The scientific issue is, what is the difference between a racemic and nonracemic mixture in achiral environment (e.g., achiral-phase chromatography) that leads to enantiomeric enrichment, amounting to separation of one particular enantiomer? There are sporadic reports on enantiomer separation of nonracemic mixtures in an achiral environment particularly from the scientists working in analytical chemistry. To cover/discuss all these reports is out of the scope of this article. The aim of the present report is to draw attention to the following points: i) How should the synthetic organic chemists and analytical chemists take care of the unexpected separation of enantiomers from nonracemic mixtures in a totally achiral environment? ii) What are the technical terms used in recent literature? iii) The requirement of revisiting definitions/terms (introduced in recent years, in particular) to describe such separations of enantiomers in light of prevalent scientific/chemical terminology used in the 'language of chemistry', the text book concept, and IUPAC background. iv) To propose logical scientific terminology or phrases for explaining the possible mechanism of separation under these conditions. v) To discuss briefly the concept/possibile phenomenon responsible for these enantioselective effects. It is also attempted to explain the effect of change of physical parameters influencing the separation from nonracemic mixture in achiral-phase chromatography.