Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Base line drift, Base line noise, Broad peaks, Change in height, Negative peaks, Ghost peaks in HPLC

Base line drift



 What You Expect                                                         What You Got



Disease
Medicine
Fluctuation of column temperature
Stabilize. Use column oven
Contamination of mobile phase/

Use HPLC grade solvent. Degas
Air in the detector cell
Clean cell. If necessary use a pressure restrictor at outlet
Plugged detector outlet line
Replace
Default mixing
Check mixer unit. Check flow rate and composition
Plugged detector outlet line
Replace
Strongly retained materials
Flush column with strong solvent
Unoptimized detection
Optimize detector



Base line noise





What You Expect                               What You Got

Disease
Medicine
Air (mobile phase, detector cell, pump)
Flush system, prime pumps, degas mobile phase
Pump pulse
Use a pulse damper
Incomplete mixing
Promote complete mixing
Electronic
Check electronic equipment in the same line
Leak

Please See No Peaks Or Very Small Peaks





 What You Expect                                 What You Got





Disease
Medicine
Leak

Please See No Peaks Or Very Small Peaks

Bad quality mobile phase
Use HPLC grade solvents
Electronics
Locate problem.Get servicing
Cell contaminant
Clean detector cell
Weak lamp
Replace detector lamp





Broad peaks




What You Expect                                 What You Got



Disease
Medicine
Altered mobile phase
Make new
Low flow rate
Increase
Leak
Please See No Peaks Or Very Small Peaks
Incorrect detector settings
Check and correct
Column overload

Please see Retention times are not constant


Void volume. Tubing too long or to wide
Use 0.010" tubing. Shorten path
Low buffer concentration
Increase
Column or guard column contamination
Replace
Void volume at inlet
Repack





Change in height



Disease
Medicine
Sample deterioration
Use fresh sample
Leak
Please See No Peaks Or Very Small Peaks
Non-reproducible sample volume
Ensure loop is completely filled
Low detector response
Check detector settings and operating conditions





Negative peaks




What You Expect                                 What You Got

Disease
Medicine
Recorder connections
Check polarity
Refractive index of mobile phase higher than that of solute
Change mobile phase
Vacancy peaks
Originate from great difference in composition between sample solvent and mobile phase. Dissolve sample im mobile phase
Mobile phase more absortive than sample components
Use mobile phase that is transparent at the wavelength used



Ghost peaks




What You Expect                                 What You Got


Disease
Medicine
Contamination of injector or column
Always flush injector after each injection.
Retained compound from previous injection
Flush colunm with strong solvent after operation to remove late eluting compounds
Reference:

Prof. Dr. H.J. Chaves das Neves
Universidade Nova de Lisboa






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