How Tubing Can Improve Your Chromatography If you’re a chromatographer, then it’s probably safe to say that one of your daily goals is to achieve great chromatographic results – chromatograms that feature well-resolved peaks with little-to-no band-broadening and a flat baseline…the kind of results that make your job easier and headache-free. To achieve that goal, you likely spend a lot of time on method validation, operational protocol, calibration, mobile phase preparation, and the like. Interestingly, what chromatographers sometimes overlook is the impact that the fluid path connections can have on the quality of the results obtained. Fluid path connections…[Read this article]
Designing the Optimal Fluid Pathway for LC-MS Applications
Over the last decade, few things have had as dramatic an impact on liquid chromatography as the availability and subsequent proliferation of mass spectrometry. Aided in part by lower overall ownership costs and greatly improved technology, mass spectrometry has seen tremendous growth, both in the number of instruments sold and in the number of analysts actively using the equipment. A key challenge when coupling mass spectrometry instruments to liquid chromatography equipment is how to best design the fluid pathway to ensure that optimal results are achieved. In fact, one of the most critical parts of the fluid pathway is the…[Read this article]
Troubleshooting UHPLC Connection Challenges
As UHPLC has gained a solid foothold in the market, some of the problems that have plagued chromatographers – problems like band broadening, split peaks, carryover, etc. – have begun to occur with greater frequency. While numerous things may be contributing to these problems, one common thing is often overlooked: possible problems with the system’s tubing connections. Problem #1 – Tubing Slippage Because system pressures in UHPLC can exceed 15,000 psi (1,034 bar), the physical demands on the tubing connections can be very significant. Due to the higher pressures of UHPLC coupled with the pressure cycling that can occur in…[Read this article]