Anal Bioanal Chem DOI 10.1007/s00216-014-7938-x

BOOKS AND SOFTWARE IN REVIEW

Volker Schurig (Ed.): Differentiation of enantiomers I, and : Differentiation of enantiomers II Alain Berthod

# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Bibliography Differentiation of enantiomers I Volker Schürig (Ed.) Series: Topics in Current Chemistry, Vol. 340 Springer ISBN: 978-3-319-03238-2 Hardcover, 280 pages 2013, €245.03 Differentiation of enantiomers II Volker Schürig (Ed.) Series: Topics in Current Chemistry, Vol. 341 Springer ISBN: 978-3-319-03715-8 Hardcover, 348 pages 2013, €266.43

Book’s topic Chiral separation is required in the pharmaceutical industry, where the activity of pharmacologically active enantiomers depends on their chirality. Differentiation of enantiomers is also useful in chemical analyses for a wide variety of applications, ranging from the perfume and tobacco industries to the search for extraterrestrial chirality. Because enantiomers have exactly the same properties in isotropic environments, they can be differentiated only by use of anisotropic interaction, i.e., using chiral selectors. For this work twenty authors have prepared chapters on their domain of expertise, focussing on different ways to separate enantiomers. Contents The first volume of “Differentiation of Enantiomers” contains seven chapters. Chapter 1 defines molecular chirality, listing the exact meaning of terms and providing a historical A. Berthod (*) Institut des Sciences Analytiques, CNRS, University of Lyon, 5 rue de la Doua, 69100 Villeurbanne, France e-mail: [email protected]

background starting with the first enantiomeric separation by Pasteur in 1848. Chapter 2 presents the fundamental knowledge and equations needed to understand chiral separations. Chapter 3 describes the properties of synthetic helical polymers, i.e. acrylamides, methacrylates, polyacetylenes, and isocyanides, in enantiomer separation. Chapter 4 deals with supramolecular host–guest interactions in liquid chromatography (LC). Chapter 5 details the chiroptical detector for mechanistic investigations. Chapter 6 covers the gas chromatography (GC) technique that uses substituted cyclodextrins for volatile chiral anaesthetic differentiation. Chapter 7 describes differentiation of enantiomers by capillary electrophoresis, and an index concludes the first volume. The second volume is also divided into seven chapters. Chapter 8 focuses on NMR spectroscopy. Because the NMR spectra of two enantiomers are identical, derivatized stereoisomers must be prepared using derivatizing agents or macrocycle or metal complexation. Chapter 9 reveals how chiral solvating agents can form labile intermediates, with enantiomers having different NMR spectra. Chapter 10 describes a variety of non-chromatographic chiral sensors able to differentiate enantiomers. The subject of Chapter 11 is “enantiopure supramolecular cages”. These synthetic cryptophane structures have an inherent chirality and innate chiral recognition capability. Chapter 12 is a study of labile enantiomers able to interconvert and/or to racemize during chiral separation. Chapter 13 proposes an explanation of the homochirality of life: circularly polarized light interacting with racemic molecules could be the source of biological homochirality. Chapter 14 deals with self-disproportionation of enantiomers in distillation, sublimation, or crystallization conducing to enantiomerically enriched fractions. The eightpage index of Volume II refers only to Volume II entries. Comparison with the existing literature The field of enantiomer separation is always advancing, with many new

A. Berthod

discoveries being made. Liquid chromatography is the tool most often used for enantiomer separation, and is therefore often the chiral method covered in most detail. This is not the case in this work, meaning it has unique interest for scientists interested in spectroscopy, electrochemical, and/or electrophoresis methods of chiral differentiation and in theoretical studies and molecular designs related to the same topic. Critical assessment LC is a minor topic in this two-volume set, whose more than 600 pages deal with other chiral methods of enantiomer recognition, especially NMR and optical spectroscopy. With more than 2800 recent references cited, it is an up-to-date work on non-LC-based chiral differen-

tiation. It is interesting to note that of the 33 authors, 28 were from the EU (11 from France, 10 from Italy, four from Germany, two from Spain, and one from the UK), three were from Japan, and only two from the US. An index referring to the content of the whole two-volume set would have been appreciated. Summary Differentiation of Enantiomers is a two-volume work containing chapters prepared by experts in their fields. The abundantly illustrated content (more than 300 figures and schemes) makes it a valuable and up-to-date resource for researchers and graduate students interested in chiral purification methods not based on liquid chromatography.