Chiral recognition and separation methods have received a lot of attention
due to the growing need for pure enantiomeric forms of substances. The separation of
enantiomers is usually done with the aid of a chiral selector. Numerous chiral selectors,
such as crown ethers, polysaccharides, antibiotics, etc., are extensively used in
enantiomeric recognition studies; nevertheless, each one of them has limitations of its
own. Recently, chiral ionic liquids (CILs), having inherent chirality due to the presence
of a chiral cation or anion, have emerged as inexpensive and lucrative chiral selectors
for enantiomeric recognition procedures. This article discusses the application of CILs
in chiral recognition methods through spectroscopic techniques like UV-visible, NMR,
and fluorescence spectroscopy. It also focuses on the mechanism behind chiral
recognition.
Keywords: Chiral recognition, Chiral selectors, Chiral ionic liquids, Enantiomers, Fluorescence spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, Separation methods.
