Resolving Separation Issues with Computational Methods: What Is the Retention Time, Exactly?

Abstract

Our attention is typically focused on chromatography in the laboratory, yet ultimately, a liquid chromatograph (LC) or gas chromatograph (GC) only produces a signal—a chromatogram—from which information still must be distilled. Fortunately, software tools can generally help us quite well with our contemporary data sets. However, as separation technology improves, both the challenges and the need for methods to obtain information from the data increase. In this series of articles, we will discuss different aspects of data analysis and learn how to extract different pieces of information from our chromatograms, while also understanding the assumptions and risks used to help us interpret the value of the information. We start with simple, yet important, information bits, which we will tie together in future articles. In this way, we can continue solving separation problems beyond the limits of our chromatographs. Each article contains a reference to a web tutorial where the gained knowledge and skills can be practiced and applied to a real signal.