How do you separate enantiomers?

Question

There are some stereochemical reactions that result in the presence of enantiomers. When moving forward with a practical organic synthesis, how does one usually separate them in order to continue with one of the enantiomers?

Answer 1

Enantiomers have identical physical properties, therefore, conventional methods (filtration, extraction, distillation, etc) cannot be used to separate them.

One method is to perform a resolution reaction where the mixture of enantiomers is reacted with a suitable chiral resolving agent. This reaction results in the formation of diastereomers, which have different physical properties, and can thus, be separated. The diastereomers are then subjected to an additional chemical reaction resulting in the formation of the desired enantiomer.