Improving Chromatographic Performance by Using Freshly Delivered Ultrapure Water in the Mobile Phase
How to improve chromatographic performance using ultrapure water
The purity of the solvent used for the mobile phase is one of many factors affecting the quality of chromatographic data obtained from high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). A typical reversed-phase HPLC gradient elution requires equilibration of the column to the initial conditions with several column volumes of the weak (aqueous) solvent. Organic contaminants in the aqueous solvent will adsorb at the head of the column and can cause interferences in the succeeding chromatograms, such as massive baseline shifts and the appearance of extraneous peaks. This study illustrates how two different sources of water used as solvent in the gradient elution of a drug mixture affect chromatographic performance over time. The solvents being compared are commercially available HPLC-grade bottled water without total oxidizable carbon (TOC) specifications and freshly delivered ultrapure water with a TOC level of 05 ppb. Comparing the chromatograms of preconcentrated water by analytical HPLC shows that bottled HPLC-grade water contains many more organic solutes than does freshly delivered ultrapure water, suggesting that these contaminating solutes can contribute to baseline variability and poor chromatographic performance when bottled water is used as a mobile phase in HPLC separations.
LCGC’s Year in Review: Highlights in Liquid Chromatography
December 20th 2024This collection of technical articles, interviews, and news pieces delves into the latest innovations in LC methods, including advance in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC), liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS), and multidimensional LC.
Next Generation Peak Fitting for Separations
December 11th 2024Separation scientists frequently encounter critical pairs that are difficult to separate in a complex mixture. To save time and expensive solvents, an effective alternative to conventional screening protocols or mathematical peak width reduction is called iterative curve fitting.
Mobile Phase Buffers in Liquid Chromatography: A Review of Essential Ideas
December 11th 2024In this installment of "LC Troubleshooting," Dwight Stoll discusses several essential principles related to when and why buffers are important, as well as practical factors, such as commonly used buffering agents, that are recommended for use with different types of detectors.
The Chromatographic Society 2025 Martin and Jubilee Award Winners
December 6th 2024The Chromatographic Society (ChromSoc) has announced the winners of the Martin Medal and the Silver Jubilee Medal for 2025. Professor Bogusław Buszewski of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland, has been awarded the prestigious Martin Medal, and the 2025 Silver Jubilee Medal has been awarded to Elia Psillakis of the Technical University of Crete in Greece.
