Highly efficient separation of amines by electrokinetic chromatography using resorcarene-octacarboxylic acids as pseudo-stationary phases

Abstract Resorcarene-octacarboxylic acids, macrocyclic molecules built up by four alkylidene-bridged resorcinol units, were synthesized and used as pseudostationary phases in electrokinetic chromatography (EKC). Resorcarenes provide a stable structure and good solubility in electrolytes even with organic modifiers. The high electrophoretic mobility of the resorcarene-octacarboxylic acids introduced here as pseudostationary phases is based on the eight partly deprotonated carboxylic groups. This offers a broad migration time window, which is the main parameter for the resolution of peaks. From three compounds with different alkyl chain lengths (C 1 , C 5 , C 11 ), the C 11 -resorcarene-octa-…