A surface molecularly imprinted polymer as chiral stationary phase for chiral separation of 1,1′-binaphthalene-2-naphthol racemates

Acrylamide (AM) was copolymerized with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) in the presence of (R)-1,1'-binaphthalene-2-naphthol (BINOL) as the template molecules on the surface of silica gel by a free radical polymerization to produce a chiral stationary phase based on the surface molecularly imprinted polymer (SMIP-CSP). The SMIP-CSP showed a much better separation factor (alpha = 4.28) than the CSP based on the molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP-CSP) without coating on the silica gel (alpha = 1.96) during the chiral separation of BINOL enantiomers by high-performance liquid chromatography. The influence of the pretreatment temperature and the content of the template molecule ((R)-BINOL) of the SMIP-CSP, and the mobile phase composition on the separation of the racemic BINOL were systematically investigated.