Illustration of a simple and versatile scheme for reversing enantiomeric elution order and facilitating enantiomeric impurity determination in capillary electrophoresis

Determination of enantiomeric purity is most often done under overload conditions, which leads to deformed peaks. In general, the best resolutions are obtained when the small peak appears before the large peak in the electropherogram. To be able to determine the R(+)-impurity in the S(-)-form as well as the S(-)-impurity in the R(+)-form the elution orders have to be reversed. The present paper describes reversal of enantiomeric elution order for the basic analyte propranolol and the acidic analyte ibuprofen. For propranolol, a charged heptakis-(6-sulfo)-beta-cyclodextrin (CD) is used in the background electrolyte. For ibuprofen, a mix of the charged heptakis-(6-sulfo)-beta-CD and the uncharged heptakis-(2,3,6-tri-O-methyl)-beta-CD is used in the background electrolyte. The use of a coated capillary and reversal of the polarity shift the elution order, buffer composition is unchanged in both cases. The enantiomers of propranolol and ibuprofen are well separated on both the coated and uncoated capillaries. Detection limits of enantiomer impurities are investigated using spiked samples of both propranolol and ibuprofen.