Chiral extraction of ketoprofen enantiomers with chiral selector tartaric esters

Distribution behavior of ketoprofen enantiomers was examined in methanol aqueous and organic solvent mixture containing tartaric esters. The influence of length of alkyl chain of tartaric esters, concentration of L-tartaric esters and methanol aqueous, kind of organic solvent on partition ratio and separation factors was investigated. The results show that L-tartaric and D-tartaric esters have different chiral recognition abilities. S-ketoprofen is easily extracted by L-tartaric esters, and R-ketoprofen is easily extracted by D-tartaric esters. L-tartaric esters form more stable diastereomeric complexes with S-enantiomer than that with R-enantiomer. This distribution behavior is consistent with chiral recognition mechanism. With the increase of the concentration of tartaric ester from 0 to 0.3 mol/L, partition coefficient K and separation factor a increase. Also, the kind of organic solvent and the concentration of the methanol aqueous have significant influence on K and a.