Cyclodextrin Cavity Polarity and Chromatographic Implications

Abstract

The Py values for aqueous cyclodextrins are reported and compared to those of organic solvents. The data indicates that the cavities of the cyclodextrins have about the same polarity as n-octanol for Pyrene, and fluorescence intensity data confirms that pyrene does not completely fit into the cavity of the smaller cyclodextrins. The combined fluorescence and Py data indicates that marked sensitivity improvements in fluorescence chromatographic detection may result from using cyclodextrin aqueous mobile phase modifiers which allow moderate inclusion of the analytes (presumably other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc.).