The separation of enantiomers of (±)-2-(4-hydroxyphenoxy) propionates, the intermediates for aryloxyphenoxypropionate herbicides, has been achieved by high-performance liquid chromatography on a chiral column. The experimental results showed that the enantiomers of the ethyl ester and methyl ester of 2-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)propionic acid could be well separated on the tribenzoylcellulose (CTB) chiral column with ethanol as mobile phase. Their separation factors were 1. 44 and 1.29 respectively. At the same time, it was found that the size of the ester group in the 2-substituted aryloxy or aryl propionates obviously affected the separation efficiency of their enantiomers on the CTB chiral column. The separation of enanatiomers of the ethyl ester was most satisfactory. And, the order of elution has been proved that the (±)-configuration of ethyl 2-(4-hydroxyphenoxy) propionate was eluted before the (-)-configuration by comparsion experiment.

Key words: HIGH SPEED LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY, PROPIONATE, PHENOXY GROUP, ENANTIOMORPH, HERBICIDES