OPTICAL RESOLUTION OF $\alpha$-AMINO ACIDS USING ENANTIOSELECTIVE MEMBRANES

Optical resolution of a-amino acid (tryptophan and tyrosine) optical isomers was achieved by a pressure driven membrane separation process, using self-supporting crosslinked membranes base on polysaccharide with different swelling indices that ranged from 100 to 70%. The membranes prepared by casting and drying the polymer solution containing 5wt% acetic acid on an acryl plate followed by crosslinking with glutaraldehyde were characterized using such analytical methods as FTIR and swelling index measurements. On the way of separating the optical isomers, several experimental factors such as the concentration of the feed solutions, operating pressure and temperature, and degree of crosslinking of the membranes have been studied. When the chitosan membranes with 70% of swelling index were used , almost complete optical resolution was obtained; 97.92% of enantiomeric excess (ee %) and 2.26 g/$m^2$ㆍh of flux. The operating pressure and the concentration of feed solutions were respectively 1.0 kgf/$\textrm{cm}^2$ and 0.49 mmol/L.