Pillar[6]arenes Host–Guest Assembly Packed Membranes for the Separation of Enantiomers of a Racemic Mixture of Propranolol

Abstract

With the widespread utilization of racemic chiral pesticides in contemporary agriculture, chiral pesticide residues have emerged as significant environmental contaminants. Due to their ability to specifically interact with other chiral molecules within a chiral environment, enantiomers of chiral pesticides exhibit chirality-dependent biological activity and environmental behavior. In this study, a noncovalent approach was employed to fabricate a chiral nanochannel membrane filled with chiral pillar[6]arene polymer (LAP6P). Filling LAP6P significantly reduced the pore size, and a chiral selection coefficient was 10.91 with a separation flux of 447.65 μmol·m^–2·h^–1, leading to a 7.13-fold increase in the chiral selection coefficient compared to that of a monolayer-modified nanochannel membrane along with good cycle stability. This study provides a novel and effective method for constructing a chiral pesticide separation platform, and it provides convenience for studying the chiral dependence on the environmental behavior of chiral pesticides.