Applications of Temperature-Responsive Polymers for Optical Resolution

Abstract

Optical resolutions of racemic mixtures of optically active compounds are very imortant especially in the areas of pharmaceutical and biomedical applications. Optical isomers have normally almost the same chemical and physical properties so that separations of these optical isomers are very difficult by conventional separation methods such as distillation or recrystallization. Conventionally, optical isomers are separated by Chromatographic method which utilizes adsorption and desorption behaviors through a column of various matrices. However, this method is not suitable for a large scale separation for industrial applications, although it is good enough for only analytical purpose.