High performance liquid chromatography clarified through multivariate approach

A team of scientists investigating high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD) have developed a multivariate approach to clarify results for multiple analytes.

Representatives of the universities of Valencia and Almeria and of the National University of the Littoral collaborated on the initiative.

Their studies focused on 11 analytes in river water which, after an initial analysis using HPLC-DAD, were not clearly resolved due to overlapping peaks.

However, by applying their multivariate approach, the scientists were able to resolve the 11 analytes separately.

They were detected with recovery percentages from 74.6 to 113.5 per cent - which the team considered satisfactory at the low concentrations used.

Problems encountered without the multivariate approach include a change in background absorbance caused by the mobile phase gradient and phantom peaks arising from interference between matrix compounds.

The findings are published in Talanta, which reports on novel applications in biochemistry, materials science and environmental analysis, among other disciplines.