title: Kinetic Resolution of d,l-Amino Acids Based on Gas-Phase Dissociation of Copper(II) Complexes.
abstract: Chiral recognition of d- and l-amino acids is achieved in the gas phase on the basis of the kinetics of competitive fragmentations of trimeric Cu(II)-bound complexes. The singly charged copper(II)-amino acid trimeric cluster ions [A(2)BCu(II) - H](+) dissociate to form [A(2)Cu(II) - H](+) and [ABCu(II) - H](+) upon collision-induced dissociation (CID) in a quadrupole ion trap. The abundance ratios of these fragments depend strongly on the stereochemistry of the ligands in the [A(2)BCu(II) - H](+) complex ion. The kinetic method was used to calculate relative Cu ion affinities (ΔCu(II)') for homo- and heterochiral copper(II)-bound dimeric cluster ions as the indicator of chiral discrimination. Six amino acids of four different types showed chiral distinctions which ranged from 0 to 6.5 kJ/mol in terms of values of ΔCu(II)' with abundance ratios, referenced to the other enantiomer, ranging from 1 to 9.2. Amino acids with aromatic substituents displayed the largest chiral distinction, which correlates well with reported chromatographic results. The methodology presented here provides a sensitive means to study enantiomers by mass spectrometry, and initial results show that it is applicable to measurement of enantiomeric excess.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907.
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Cooks