Sky Countryman

Although gel permeation chromatography (GPC) is not as widely used as other chromatography methods, it continues to be a useful technique for analyzing the size and solution characteristics of organic polymers. In this study, GPC was applied to analyze different polar polymers that are commonly used in drug excipients. As a result of their polarity, some specialized operating conditions were required. Optimizing the separation brought to light many of the common parameters involved in optimizing GPC separations, and those are discussed in detail here.

The current state of economic affairs is tumultous; as the economy struggles to bounce back, companies across all industries are becoming more creative in finding ways to reduce costs without sacrificing the quality of their goods or services. According to a recent survey conducted by the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT), 64.5% of forensic labs surveyed are implementing changes, or plan to implement changes, as a result of limited resources.

A method is illustrated for the simultaneous analysis of ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulfate in human urine samples.

Barbiturates are a class of antidepressants whose abuse and addiction by recreational users has become a widespread problem (www.nlm.nih.gov). In our work we strived to streamline the barbiturate screening process to provide a fast, cost-effective, and reproducible method from start to finish for forensic labs who are involved in high-throughput processing.

In pain management analysis, urine is often used as it is a copiously available bodily fluid that can be collected easily and used for analysis.

Fast turnaround time is critical in the clinical testing environment. Here, fast liquid chromatography (LC) technologies were utilized for the comprehensive assay of commonly prescribed pain management drugs in under 2 min. The use of fast LC also provided significantly improved sensitivity. A mini-validation for these analytes in human urine was performed and acceptable values for accuracy, precision, linearity, lot-to-lot variability, and matrix effects were demonstrated for each analyte.

As a result of their high toxicity and carcinogenicity, aflatoxins are of major concern for food producers, the food processing industry and consumers. Most countries have legislation setting maximum permissible limits for aflatoxins, which are in the low micrograms per kilogram for food matrices.

Recently a newly developed Kinetex 2.6 µm core-shell chromatographic particle has been commercialized that offers the performance benefits of sub-2 µm fully-porous particles but at substantially lower operating pressures.

The Zebron ZB-Bioethanol GC column reduces fuel ethanol analysis time to less than 8 min, while providing complete resolution of methanol and ethanol from all denaturant components. This newly developed GC column is suitable for analysis following ASTM Method D 5501 and Europe prEN 15376.