Troubleshooting LC Systems

Over the last 15 years, high-performance liquid chromatogra phy (LC) has made the transition from an instrument used only by experts in research labs to a tool used for routine applications by relatively unskilled workers. With this transition have come in instrumentation and column technology. In major advances the past, the operator had to be a jack-of-all-trades, with a screw driver, soldering iron, and various wrenches as constant compan ions in the LC lab. Today, many instruments contain micropro cessors as powerful as those of mainframe computers of earlier days. With this technology has come a variety of self-diagnostic tools that allow the LC system to locate many of its own prob lems. Traditionally, well-honed LC troubleshooting skills have been a result of years of work at the bench. Today the LC system itself often can do a better job of troubleshooting than the operator can. Yet many of the problems of the past are still the major problems of today: air bubbles, check valves, detector lamps, and, of course, problems with the separation. An added pressure on the operator of today's LC system is that of productivity-the lab often cannot afford unnecessary downtime. This means that the operator has to be a troubleshooting expert, or has to have that expertise at his or her fingertips. The present book was written to provide this expertise in an easy-to-use format for users at all levels of experience.

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Major advances in instrumentation and technology have made high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) a pervasive tool in virtually all areas of chemical and biomedical research today. Despite HPLC's enormous growth, technical problems still bedevil most users at least occasionally. Based on their immensely successful short courses, Dolan and Snyder's landmark new book --Troubleshooting LC Systems--now makes available to every practicing chromatographer the authors' wealth of expertise from years of hands-on troubleshooting of real-world LC problems--problems that routinely cause crises and unproductive downtime in nearly every lab. Believing that successful troubleshooting requires an understanding of the basics, Dolan and Snyder open by setting forth all the fundamental principles of LC operation, then move on to a microscopic description of all the elements of LC devices, to lay out their optimal preventive maintenance routines, and ultimately to offer an unprecedentedly thorough treatment of each and every facet of troubleshooting. Displaying a special tutorial mastery--honed to a fineness during their ongoing teaching and consulting activities, and a well-received feature column in LC Magazine--the book's chapters cover: automation and robotics . approaches to troubleshooting . reactions of samples . basic separation techniques . valves, tubing, syringes . band broadening and tailing . preventive maintenance . column packing and flushing . individual LC modules . troubleshooting principles . reagents and buffering . specific problems in separation . ghost and vacancy peaks . quantitation and calibration . pumps, seals, and pistons . gradient elution problems . column composition . concentration and blockages . sample cleanup . temperature and mixing effects . detectors and recorders . column packing and flushing. In short, Dolan and Snyder's eminently practical new guide to Troubleshooting LC Systems is an essential laboratory handbook--one that empowers expert and novice chromatographer alike to solve every sort of practical laboratory problem on a day-to-day basis. No one using an LC system should be without it!

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- Section I. General Considerations.- 2 Logical Approaches to Troubleshooting.- 3 Separation Basics.- 4 Principles of Troubleshooting.- 5 Prevention of Problems.- Section II. Individual LC Modules.- 6 Reservoirs and Degassing.- 7 Pumps.- 8 Tubing.- 9 Fittings.- 10 Injectors and Autosamplers.- 11 Columns.- 12 Detectors.- 13 Recorders and Data Systems.- Section III Troubleshooting the Separation plus Other Problems.- 14 Separation Problems: Band Tailing and Peak Distortion.- 15 Separation Problems: Other Changes in the Appearance of the Chromatogram.- 16 Problems in Quantitation.- 17 Gradient Elution and Sample Pretreatment.