Comment on Study of enantioselective metolachlor adsorption by activated carbons” by A. Gomis-Berenguer, I. Laidin, S. Rononcial and B. Cagnon, RSC Advances , 2020, 10 , 40321

Abstract

A recent study on adsorption of metolachlor on activated carbons carried out by Gomis-Berenguer et al.has reported higher adsorption capacity for pure S-metolachlor compared with the adsorption capacityfor the racemic mixture of this pesticide. The authors claim that the adsorption is enantioselective, withthe activated carbon being more efficient for the adsorption of the S enantiomer compared with the Renantiomer. In this comment, we question this explanation (since the non-chiral surface of an activatedcarbon would never be selective towards one enantiomer instead of the other) and we offer somepossible answers supported by theoretical calculations.