LCGC Europe-07-01-2008

Planar chromatography celebrates its 70th birthday. The technique dates back to 1938 when, at the Pharmaceutical Institute in Kharkov, Ukraine, N.A. Izmailov and M.S. Shraiber first devized a circular thin-layer chromatogram,1 which was called spread layer or spot chromatography at the time.

ESA Biosciences has archived its most recent webinar called "Is Ion Analysis Bringing You Down?" which was produced to give chromatographers insight into efficient and cost-effective strategies for ion analysis using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The webinar addresses many of the concerns that many chromatographers face with ion analysis and includes presentations and a Q&A session featuring ESA scientist, Dr. Ian Acworth, along with industry experts from Synomics Pharmaceutical Services and Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical.

A decade or two ago, the primary users of mass spectrometers were probably graduates of doctoral programmes specializing in mass spectrometry (MS). But as the science evolved and merged with the analytical mainstream, manufacturers redoubled their efforts to make their instruments and operating software user-friendly. These days, specialists in various disciplines use MS as an analytical tool, a development that demands that instrument and software engineers pay close attention to ease-of-use issues and better understand how - and for what purposes - their instruments are used.

In gradient mode, the quality of the analysis will be influenced by the performance of the proportioning and mixing of the eluents at any time during a given chromatogram.

I remember reading a study on learning in the all-day short-course format. Because teaching liquid chromatography (LC) classes is a significant part of my work, my attention was captured. The writers claimed that in a 6–8 h class, only three points would be remembered. One of my LC troubleshooting classes has approximately 200 slides - what does this say about how effective a short course is at conveying critical knowledge? As the saying goes, I have tried to make lemonade out of these lemons, and use the "only three things" concept to help reinforce what I think are the key points. So, this month's "LC Troubleshooting" instalment will use these points to form the core of a preventive maintenance programme for your LC system.

Research Group: Professor Maria Celia Garcia-Ãlvarez-Coque, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain.

ISC 2008 - the 27th International Symposium on Chromatography will be held from 21–25 September 2008 in Münster, Germany.