ENANTIOMER PURIFICATION THROUGH ACHIRAL CHROMATOGRAPHY: INTEGRATING SIMULATED MOVING BED AND SELF-DISPROPORTIONATION OF ENANTIOMERS

Enantiomer purification is a critical process in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and food industries, where chiral compounds often exhibit distinct biological activities. Traditional chiral chromatography is effective but costly due to the use of expensive chiral stationary phases. This review article highlights a recent breakthrough in enantiomer purification under entirely achiral conditions. Specifically, it focuses on the convergence of achiral simulated moving bed chromatography and the phenomenon of self-disproportionation of enantiomers (SDE). Experimental validation using scalemic methyl p-tolyl sulfoxide as a model compound enabled the isolation of the excess enantiomer with high purity (99% ee) and a respectable yield (~50%). This innovative process features exceptional productivity (up to 99 grams per liter of column volume per day), reproducibility, and reliability. This breakthrough presents the first practical example of enantiomer purification based on SDE, offering a scalable and economically viable alternative to conventional chiral separations. Given that SDE is an inherent property of all chiral compounds, this innovative approach is anticipated to become the method of choice for practical enantiomer purification in both research and industrial production.