Chiral analysis of pantolactone with molecular rotational resonance spectroscopy

A molecular rotational resonance spectroscopy method for measuring the enantiomeric excess of pantolactone, an intermediate in the synthesis of panthenol and pantothenic acid, is presented. The enantiomers are distinguished via complexation with a small chiral tag molecule, which produces diastereomeric complexes in the pulsed jet expansion used to inject the sample into the spectrometer. These complexes have distinct moments of inertia, so their spectra are resolved by MRR spectroscopy. Quantitative enantiomeric excess (EE) measurements are made by taking the ratio of normalized complex signal levels when a chiral tag sample of high, known EE is used, while the absolute configuration of the sample can be determined from electronic structure calculations of the complex geometries. These measurements can be performed without the need for reference samples with known enantiopurity. Two instruments were used in the analysis. A broadband, chirped‐pulse spectrometer is used to perform structural characterization of the complexes. The broadband spectrometer is also used to determine the EE; however, this approach requires relatively long measurement times. A targeted MRR spectrometer is also used to demonstrate EE analysis with approximately 15‐min sample‐to‐sample cycle time. The quantitative accuracy of the method is demonstrated by comparison with chiral gas chromatography and through the measurement of a series of reference samples prepared from mixtures of (R)‐pantolactone and (S)‐pantolactone samples of known EE.