LCGC Europe-05-01-2008

LCGC Europe

Assessment of Accuracy in Chromatographic Analysis

May 01, 2008

Practical Data Handling

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The assessment of accuracy, which involves the estimation of precision and the determination of trueness, refers to the process of evaluating whether the results provided by analytical methods are close to accepted reference values. The different references available in chromatographic analysis and useful guidelines to perform such a comparison are described.

Russian Focus

May 01, 2008

Russia Focus

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Research Group: Dr Sc. Alexander Kurganov and Prof. Dr Sc. Victor Berezkin, Research Laboratory of Chromatography: Institute of Petrochemical Synthesis, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow.

Column Pressure Considerations in Analytical HPLC

May 01, 2008

Column Watch

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In this instalment of "Column Watch", columnist Ron Majors examines the role of pressure in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) from two viewpoints: the impact of the ultrahigh pressures encountered in ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) on chromatographic parameters and increases in column pressure encountered in normal daily use. The latter is of more practical consequence to HPLC users because increased back pressure usually implies that something has gone wrong with the column. Pressure increases as a result of physical and chemical contamination are explored and practical approaches to solve these problems are suggested.

New Technologies

May 01, 2008

New Technologies

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These mini Light Bulb Phone Charms are the perfect accessory for today's mobile phones. Simply put your phone on silent and save the world from hearing your ring tone. Instead, every time you receive a call or text, the mini Light Bulb will flash away.

GC–TOF-MS and DART–TOF-MS: Challenges in the Analysis of soft drinks

May 01, 2008

Gas Chromatography

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The potential of the time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) to innovate the analysis of soft drinks is described using gas chromatography (GC) hyphenated to TOF-MS and a new type of ion source, direct analysis in real time (DART), coupled to high-resolution TOF-MS. Head-space solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was used to isolate/extract volatile compounds followed by GC–TOF-MS to identify tainted compound in contaminated soft drinks. Direct analysis in real time–time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DART–TOF-MS) was also used to obtain negative and positive ion profiles of different soft drinks to determine the presence of various compounds, including antimicrobial preservatives, artificial sweeteners, acidulants and saccharides, without any sample preparation and chromatographic separation.