High-performance liquid chromatography of ternary nickel dithiocarbamate complexes derived from some sympathomimetic drugs

Nickel dithiocarbamate complexes derived from some sympathomimetic drugs are examined on silica Radial-Pak columns using binary solvents containing a small percentage of an organic polar modifier. Both the type and concentration of this modifier was found to influence the separation of the ternary from the parent binary complexes. When the two ligands in a ternary complex are racemic to each other, separation of the ternary complex is only possible when certain structural requirements of the molecule are fulfilled. Ternary complexes which contain structurally similar, but nonracemic ligands, are shown to be readily separated from binary complexes. When two such complexes differ only in that one of the ligands in one is enantiomeric to a ligand in the second complex, then it can be shown that the ternary complex with the (+) enantiomer ligand elutes faster from the silica column than the one with the (‚Äö-) enantiomer ligand. An example of the use of ternary complexes for the identification of optical and structurally related impurities in pharmaceutical products is also given.