Separation of ?-hydroxy acid enantiomers by high performance capillary electrophoresis using copper(II)-L-amino acid and copper(II)-aspartame complexes as chiral selectors in the background electrolyte

Optical isomers of some ?-hydroxy acids, namely 2-, 3-phenyllactic acid, mandelic, p-hydroxy-, m-hydroxy and 3,4-di-hydroxymandelic acid, were separated by means of capillary zone electrophoresis in free solution, using copper (II) complexes with L-amino acid or aspartame ligands in the background electrolyte. The concentration and the pH dependence of the enantiomer separations have been studied in the cases of different chiral ligands and/or analytes. With the use of L-proline as ligand only the optical isomers of 3-phenyllactic acid were resolvable, whereas using L-hydroxyproline the D and L forms of all compounds, except for 2-phenyllactic acid, were separated. Better results were obtained with aspartame as chiral ligand.