Chiral Separation Of Enantiomers Using Single And Double Bond Amino Acid Based Surfactants By Capillary Electrophoresis

The purpose of this research was to study the effects of chiral separation of amino acid based surfactants with either single or double bonds at the end of their hydrophobic tails.  Two sets of each surfactant alanine and leucine, with single and double bonds at the end of the hydrophobic tails, were synthesized; critical micelle concentration (CMC) was measured using fluorescence spectroscopy by using Pyrene as the probe.  Results indicated that presence of the double bond at the end of the hydrophobic tail, increased hydrophilicity of the surfactant, resulting in increased CMC of the surfactant.  However, both single and double bonded surfactant behave similarly when pH was varied.  The results further indicated that changing the polar head from alanine to leucine did not affect the CMC of the surfactant significantly.  In addition chiral separation of the enantiomers of 1,1’-bi-2-napthol using capillary electrophoresis (CE) were separated using alanine surfactant and results demonstrated the single bond can effectively separate the enantiomers of 1,1’-bi-2-napthol while the double bond does not.  Further research will focus on whether leucine single and double bond will have the same affect and at what concentrations do these surfactants separate 1,1’-bi-2-napthol efficiently.