Columns | The LCGC Blog

LCGC Blogger Tony Taylor offers some simple visual methods to assess column performance.

They say a picture paints a thousand words… This month I’ve taken inspiration from a recent webcast, presented at www.chromacademy.com, in which I presented real data from our work that represents some ‘classic’ GC problems.

Column overload is a very commonly encountered issue in GC for beginners. Changes in peak symmetry, generally observed as peak fronting, can be subtle in the sharp peaks generated by GC, but the result can be significant shifts in retention times, loss of resolution, and error in peak integration.

Kevin Schug discusses why we need a comprehensive study of unconventional oil and natural gas (UOG) extraction processes.

A client asked me recently for a quick but "as optimized as possible" separation for some monoclonal antibody (MAb) characterization (digest) samples using LC-MS. The samples had been prepared and were awaiting analysis-typical forward planning! Actually his internal analytical department had changed their priority and he was left hanging.

If you want to improve analytical methods to make them better, the sample preparation step is probably one of the best steps to target.

Useful equations to improve the robustness of your separations.

There is a shortcoming in our current educational system. There is too much rote learning, and not enough time given to let science-minded students explore a topic. Overall, when students ask their own questions (not ones given to them by instructors), they become more invested in finding the answers.

When was the last time you reported your results with an estimate of the error associated with the data? You don’t need to because your method is performing within the levels defined by various agencies and which were confirmed by your validation and your daily QC checks. The person for whom you are producing the data is aware of these tolerances and therefore inherently appreciates the associated precision of the data and can make judgements based on this. Not in the world I work in!

We recently published a study of water quality from 550 water wells in the Barnett Shale of North Texas. Using a suite of analytical techniques, we were able to find new evidence of the potential impact of unconventional natural gas extraction on environmental quality.

LCGC Blogger Kevin Schug has uncovered some surprising knowledge gaps in method validation and forensic analysis.

Using ESI-MS to perform quantitative binding analyses and determine association constants depends on the ability of the ionization process to preserve the system equilibrium.

If you use SPE in your work, then most likely it’s very important to the success of your applications and it’s proper implementation will be key to the performance of your analyses. However, SPE protocols are “variable in quality” (I’ve been as I kind as I can there!) and this variability appears to come from some common issues, misunderstandings and, frankly, ignorance of the mechanisms which are in play.

LCGC Blogger Tony Taylor presents his eight steps for improving your solid-phase extraction (SPE) results.

Once you have mastered the terminology and symbology the actual mathematics for the models and approaches used at the level which is useful to practicing analytical chemists is really very straightforward indeed.

For the analytical community, method validation in some form or another is a natural extension of best practice in the analytical laboratory. However, the notion of method validation, and many aspects of detailed forensics analysis, are not well understood by most lawyers and judges.

Now that I have been at UT Arlington for 10 years, I have had many opportunities to refine my own approaches to teaching, in hopes that the learning curve to achieve meaningful learning for students is not as steep as the one I had to manage.

I got into a discussion with a learned colleague recently regarding the relationship between peak height and flow rate in gradient HPLC. We haven't really resolved the discussion, there are suggestions regarding "peak focussing," the number of column volumes in relation to the gradient volume (number of column volumes per minute), increases in efficiency etc.

All sample preparation adds the potential for error to the analytical protocol, so choosing less-complicated techniques will help to reduce inherent error.

What if we could make the troubleshooting poster on the laboratory wall come to life? What if we could build an engine which figured out the most likely causes of groups of symptoms and offer these up as a prioritised list for folks to work through and give them supporting information on each problem, why it occurred, how to fix it and, crucially, how to avoid it happening next time?

CLEAR is an endeavor to create a consortium of experts interested in building and propagating activities related to the assessment of the potential impact of industrial activities on the environment, as well as the creation of new solutions to mitigate problems associated with these activities.

There are many aspects of analytical science which abound with myth and legend – but gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and more specifically the electron ionization (EI) process, stands out as the technique which has given rise to the largest number of ‘urban myths’ and misunderstandings.

In this blog installment, I would like to share a little advice with those of you who are attending your first major conference.

There are often times in my work when I need to 'mess about' with column dimensions and particle morphologies. For 'mess about' read improve or transfer.

I have been at The University of Texas at Arlington for almost 10 years, and I have taught approximately seven different classes in my time here. Yet, the one that I have had the most opportunities to teach, and the most time to reform, is our junior/senior-level Instrumental Analysis (IA) course.

LCGC Blogger Kevin Schug offers his insights into superficially porous particles (SPPs) versus fully porous particles (FPPs).

Choosing the correct column selectivity and dimensions is fundamental to successful gas chromatography method development.

If you do Gas Chromatography, then you will have undoubtedly conditioned a capillary GC column ready for use after a period of storage or before first use.

I have had enough conversations with experts in the field of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) stationary-phase supports to know that there is more to the increased efficiency provided by the use of superficially porous particles (SPP) compared to fully porous particles (FPP) than simply mass transfer effects. Yet, I would argue that this is still one of the biggest misconceptions propagated by some members of the chromatography community.

LCGC Blogger Tony Taylor asks if we are too scared to properly explore selectivity options in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).