LCGC North America-08-01-2019

Click the title above to open the LCGC North America August 2019 issue, Volume 37, Number 8, in an interactive PDF format.

The high levels of non-volatile salts typically used in ion-exchange separations are incompatible with mass spectrometry. But the desire to directly couple these two powerful techniques has prompted researchers find solutions to this problem. Here are three approaches.

To better understand modern sample preparation techniques-such as ultrasound-assisted extraction, microwave-assisted extraction, and pressurized solvent extraction-we should look at the lessons these methods took from Soxhlet extraction.

In LC–MS, the importance of tuning and calibrating the mass spectrometer cannot be overemphasized. There are six main aspects to address.

We explain recent trends in HPLC autosampler design, provide recommendations for selecting one, and offer guidelines for operation and troubleshooting.

HILIC has rapidly evolved into a practical technique. For analyzing highly polar compounds, HILIC can be far more straightforward than GC or reversed-phase LC with derivatization, and can lead to a simpler final method with robustness comparable to that of reversed-phase LC.

Several regulatory data integrity guidance documents require that laboratories understand the data life cycle of their processes, but provide only vague definitions of what a data life cycle is. Here is a practical interpretation.