LCGC North America
There is an old saying regarding the world of fashion that says if you wait long enough, everything comes back into style eventually. While this saying may have provided the necessary excuse for many people (myself included) to avoid throwing away favorite old articles of clothing, the underlying truth that everything is cyclical cannot be denied, and this certainly holds just as true for the field of chromatography as it does for any other field.
There is an old saying regarding the world of fashion that says if you wait long enough, everything comes back into style eventually. While this saying may have provided the necessary excuse for many people (myself included) to avoid throwing away favorite old articles of clothing, the underlying truth that everything is cyclical cannot be denied, and this certainly holds just as true for the field of chromatography as it does for any other field.
David Walsh
Earlier in the year, the stock market was at its lowest point in over ten years, and many feared the recession might even deepen into a depression. At the same time, the acetonitrile shortage was at its peak, with many laboratories feeling the crunch of this unexpected rise in the cost of solvent. Things looked grim, and the outlook was dark to say the least.
Now, just a few months later, that cycle has begun to shift and the wheels have begun turning in the right direction, albeit at a slow pace. The stock market, while nowhere near its highs from just a couple of years ago, has recovered at least some of its losses. And the supply of acetonitrile is slowly coming back as well, although all indications are that, like oil, the price may never return to the previous levels that many had become accustomed to.
Only time will tell if the cycle continues turning in this direction, but for now, it is safe to say that the outlook for the chromatography industry is discernibly brighter than it was when the year began. And as always, you can rely on LCGC to bring you the most reliable information on these issues and more, from the most respected and knowledgeable sources in the industry today — experts like Ron Majors, who addresses the ACN shortage and continued price spike in a special addendum to his column this month. This is a must-read for any reader whose daily work involves the use of this solvent.
Enjoy the issue.
David Walsh
Editor-in-Chief
David.Walsh@advanstar.com
Fundamentals of Benchtop GC–MS Data Analysis and Terminology
April 5th 2025In this installment, we will review the fundamental terminology and data analysis principles in benchtop GC–MS. We will compare the three modes of analysis—full scan, extracted ion chromatograms, and selected ion monitoring—and see how each is used for quantitative and quantitative analysis.
Characterizing Plant Polysaccharides Using Size-Exclusion Chromatography
April 4th 2025With green chemistry becoming more standardized, Leena Pitkänen of Aalto University analyzed how useful size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) could be in characterizing plant polysaccharides.
This information is supplementary to the article “Accelerating Monoclonal Antibody Quality Control: The Role of LC–MS in Upstream Bioprocessing”, which was published in the May 2025 issue of Current Trends in Mass Spectrometry.