For most organic reaction mixture purifications the process is fairly straightforward. Use hexane/ethyl acetate or, for polar compounds, DCM/MeOH.  But what do you do if this doesn't work and your compounds are basic organic amines?

In this post, I re-examine the options available to achieve an acceptable organic amine purification when typical separation methods are insufficient.

Organic and medicinal chemists frequently utilize flash chromatography to purify their reaction mixtures. Normal-phase flash chromatography is most often used but may not the best methodology, especially when the compounds are quite polar and/or ionizable.

For these molecules, reversed-phase flash chromatography is preferred but often is not used due to an uncertainty regarding the best solvent choices and the reversed-phase mechanism.  In this post, I will discuss how organic solvent choice in reversed-phase chromatography can influence the chromatographic separation.

Flash chromatography – a purification tool for both organic chemists and natural product researchers.  This tool is essential when you need to remove impurities from your targeted product, or products, in order to get them pure.  To reduce the costs associated with flash chromatography, some chemists try reusing the same column over and over, not always with success.

Up to six compounds can be easily separated with an automated step-gradient optimizer embedded in modern flash chromatography systems.

I have recently posted on how solvent choice influences the separation of hard to resolve compounds using normal-phase flash chromatography. As a chemist with an inquiring mind, I thought I would expand my research beyond normal-phase and see what happens in reversed-phase.

In this post, I share my results. 

Gradients, used in chromatographic methods, assist with chemical separation and elution. They begin with “weak” elution conditions and end with “strong” elution conditions.

For most organic and medicinal chemists flash chromatography is just another step in the synthesis work flow - react, analyze, purify, react, analyze, purify... until the final product is made. The desired product of each reaction, and the mixture of other species present are, of course, different with each cycle.  Separating the desired compound efficiently without a lot of hassle is something I have written about in this post as well as in others in this series.

In this post, I've written about how that TLC (thin layer chromatography) plate you use for monitoring your reaction can be used to create reliable, efficient, effective gradients.

Tetrahydrocannabinol, aka THC, is a psychoactive compound found in cannabis and, to a lesser degree, in hemp.  Though THC is legal in some locations in the US and Canada, there is a growing market for its non-hallucinogenic cousin, cannabidiol (CBD), which has purported medical benefits.

The problem with isolating CBD from cannabis and hemp is contamination from THC, which is typically present at a moderate to high percentage. In this post, I will provide some insight into rapidly purifying CBD to remove THC.

Varying the concentrations of mobile phase solvents during  flash purification chromatography enhances the ability of the technique to effectively isolate the desired compound from reaction by-products and unconsumed reagents.  Choosing how these concentrations will be varied over time has a significant effect on the purity and recovery of desired compounds.

For most synthesis and natural product chemists, flash chromatography is the primary tool for purification and isolation of compounds of interest. Purification methods include flash system defaulted linear gradients (e.g. 0-100%), active gradient modification (on-the-fly) during purification, and unique method creation based one either the chemist’s experience or TLC data (typically a linear gradient).