Novel ethylenediamine-β-cyclodextrin grafted membranes for the chiral separation of mandelic acid and its derivatives

In the present study, flat cellulose acetate ultrafiltration membranes were prepared first by nonsolvent induced phase separation method. Then chiral membranes for separating the enantiomers were prepared by grafting the ultrafiltration membranes using ethylenediamine-β-cyclodextrin as the chiral selector and epichlorohydrin as the spacer arm. The pure water permeability of the ultrafiltration membrane was around 115 L·m⁻²·h⁻¹·bar⁻¹. The properties of the chiral membranes were characterized using infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The chiral membrane performance in enantiomer separation was evaluated with racemates, such as mandelic acid (MA), 2-chloromandelic acid (2-ClMA), 4-chloromandelic acid (4-ClMA), and methyl mandelate (MM). The influence of feed concentration on the separation efficiency was also investigated. The results indicated that the enantiomeric excess percentages (e.e%) of the racemic mixtures for these four chiral compounds were up to 31.8%, 25.4%, 17.8%, and 32.6%, respectively. The binding free energy of the chiral selector with the (S)-enantiomer calculated by molecular dynamics simulations was stronger than that with the (R)-enantiomer, which was consistent with the experimental results (higher concentration of (R)-enantiomer in the permeate). This supports the affinity absorption-separation mechanism.