RESUMO
The pseudobinary preparative separation of nadolol stereoisomers is performed by simulated moving bed chromatography (SMB). Using the Chiralpak IA adsorbent, a new 25:75:0.1 (v/v/v) methanol-acetonitrile-diethylamine solvent composition was selected to perform the experimental SMB separation and compare it with the previous results obtained using pure methanol. Using a 2 g L-1 total feed concentration of an equimolar mixture of the four stereoisomers of nadolol, the more retained component was fully recovered (100% purity and 100% recovery), with a system productivity of 0.77 g L-1 hour-1 and a solvent consumption of 9.62 L g-1 . Comparing these results with the ones previously reported using 100:0.1 methanol-diethylamine solvent composition, this work shows that the 25:75:0.1 methanol-acetonitrile-diethylamine is a better alternative for the preparative separation of nadolol stereoisomers by SMB chromatography. These results are confirmed by simulation of the SMB operation for higher feed concentrations, by comparing the performances of the two solvent compositions using the data obtained experimentally through the measurement of the adsorption equilibrium isotherms and the kinetic data obtained for both solvents. The new experimental and simulation results stress out that the performance of the preparative separation can be improved by a careful selection of the solvent composition.
RESUMO
Chiralpak IA adsorbent is used for both analytical and preparative chromatographic separation of nadolol stereoisomers. The results include a complete screening of the mobile phase composition for both the baseline resolution of all four nadolol stereoisomers (analytical separation) and the simulated moving bed (SMB) pseudo-binary separation of the most retained stereoisomer. The experimental results show that analytical baseline resolution of nadolol stereoisomers can be achieved using alcohol/hydrocarbon and alcohol/acetonitrile solvent mixtures. The 10%ethanol/90%acetonitrile mixture is presented as the one that presents baseline resolution with lower retention. For the preparative pseudo-binary separation, pure ethanol, pure methanol, alcohol/acetonitrile, and alcohol/tetrahydrofuran mixtures proved to allow good separation results. The 100%methanol/0.1%diethylamine solvent composition was selected to perform the experimental SMB separation. Using a 10 g/L total feed concentration, the more retained stereoisomer was recovered at the extract outlet stream with 99.5% purity, obtaining a system productivity of 1.98 gL(-1) h(-1) and requiring a solvent consumption of 3.13 L/g of product. Comparing these results with the ones recently presented by Ribeiro et al. (2013), this work shows that the Chiralpak IA chiral adsorbent is an interesting alternative to Chiralpak AD for the separation of nadolol stereoisomers at both analytical and preparative scales. Chirality 28:399-408, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.