Bile Salts in Chiral Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography: 2000–2020

Bile salts are naturally occurring chiral surfactants that are able to solubilize hydrophobic compounds. Because of this ability, bile salts were exploited as chiral selectors added to the background solution (BGS) in the chiral micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC) of various small molecules. In this review, we aimed to examine the developments in research on chiral MEKC using bile salts as chiral selectors over the past 20 years. The review begins with a discussion of the aggregation of bile salts in chiral recognition and separation, followed by the use of single bile salts and bile salts with other chiral selectors (i.e., cyclodextrins, proteins and single-stranded DNA aptamers). Advanced techniques such as partial-filling MEKC, stacking and single-drop microextraction were considered. Potential applications to real samples, including enantiomeric impurity analysis, were also discussed.

The aggregation of amphiphilic (L)-proline-porphyrin derivatives in ethanol-water mixtures promoted by chiral anionic surfactants

The use of chiral surfactants results in a powerful tool to form chiral assemblies of (L)proline-functionalized porphyrin derivatives in EtOH/H[Formula: see text]O exploiting hydrophobic effect. The formation of chiral heteroaggregated species strictly depends both on the configuration of the chiral center of the surfactant and on its concentration, opening the possibility to tune the supramolecular asymmetry of the final structures.

Chiral surfactants for dispersing carbon nanotubes

Chiral surfactants induce excellent dispersion of CNTs. The dispersed CNTs improve the thermal properties and chiral stability of the dispersion medium.

Surfactant-induced chirality on reluctant aggregates of a chiral amphiphilic cationic (l)-proline–Zn(ii)porphyrin conjugate in water

The aggregation of an amphiphilic chiral Zn(ii)porphyrin derivative occurs in aqueous solutions of chiral surfactants with highly specific molecular recognition.