Twenty years of research on silica-based chiral stationary phases.

This review provides an overview of twenty years of pioneering work (from 1985 to 2005) of our research group in the preparation and application of enantioselective packing materials for HPLC. After a brief introduction to the rational design of a new chiral stationary phase, a detailed presentation in chronological order of appearance in the literature is given of the currently developed repertoire of chiral stationary phases and their typical applications. Emphasis is placed on the different synthetic strategies exploited to obtain highly efficient, stable, and versatile chiral stationary phases.