Chiral Separation of Nateglinide and its L Enantiomer on a Molecularly Imprinted Polymer-Based Stationary Phase

A new chiral stationary phase for nateglinide (N-(trans-4-isopropylcyclohexylcarbonyl)-D-phenylalanine) based on a molecularly imprinted polymer has been prepared by non-covalent imprinting. For chromatographic analysis the effects on the separation of mobile phase composition, flow rate, and temperature were investigated, and the optimum conditions for HPLC were shown to be: mobile phase, acetonitrile; flow rate, 0.5 mL min−1; temperature, 25 °C. It was shown that the nateglinide-imprinted polymer was capable of recognizing the enantiomeric difference between nateglinide and its L enantiomer, whereas the non-imprinted polymer had no such ability. Scatchard analysis was used to investigate the binding characteristics of the nateglinide-imprinted stationary phase; this indicated that two classes of binding site were present in the imprinted polymer. The equilibrium dissociation constant (KD) and the apparent maximum number (Qmax) of high- and low-affinity binding sites were 3.7 × 10−4 mol L−1 and 11.38 μmol g−1, and 1.81 × 10−3 mol L−1 and 27.73 μmol g−1, respectively.