Separation of Amino Acid Enantiomers Using Capillary Electrophoresis with a New Chiral Ligand

A chiral ionic liquid, namely 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazole L-tartrate ([EMIM][L-Tar]), was applied as a new chiral ligand for the separation of tryptophan, tyrosine, and phenylalanine enantiomers by chiral ligand exchange capillary electrophoresis (CE). To validate the unique behavior of [EMIM][L-Tar], the performance of L-tartaric acid and 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazole L-proline as chiral ligands was investigated to make a comparison with [EMIM][L-Tar). Then the separation mechanism was further discussed. It was proven that [EMIM][L-Tar] was a good chiral ligand and would have good application prospects in separation science.