Separation of acetylferrocene from synthetic mixtures by countercurrent chromatography

The main product of acetylation of ferrocene was successfully separated and purified with high purity from synthetic mixtures by countercurrent chromatography using a selected biphasic solvent system. According to distribution performance of main product and reactant, a two-phase solvent system was selected by thin layer chromatography, in which the partition coefficient for each component was determined by HPLC. Then a two-phase solvent system consisting of petroleum ether/ethyl acetate/methanol/water (6:4:6:4, v/v) was selected. After acetylation reaction, 20 mg of synthetic mixture was subjected to countercurrent chromatography, yielding 2.1 mg of ferrocene and 8.7 mg of acetyl ferrocene with 96.6% and 97.4% purity. Results indicated that countercurrent chromatography is a very efficient method for separation and purification of target product from synthetic mixtures.