Solvent quality - a guarantee to avoid ghost peaks in gradient HPLC
In many industries, ‘control’ is essential in production and analysis. One of the most common methods used is reversed-phase HPLC or UHPLC. However, there are several factors that can harm your analysis such as contamination from the HPLC system or using low quality consumables and reagents. These factors can cause ghost peaks, introduce impurities and ruin your HPLC or UHPLC analyses. Quality and batch-to-batch solvent reproducibility are one of the key parameters to avoid poor quality results.
contributed by VWR |
The presence of ghost peaks is an issue because these non identified peaks are close to peaks of interest, and can deliver incorrect results in quantitative analyses when they overlap peaks of interest. Uncertainty in data quality and reliability is of course the result.
With the increase in UV detector sensitivity in recent years, detection has become possible at very low concentrations, bringing the problem of ghost peaks into the spotlight.
It’s clear that when ghost peaks suddenly appear, scientists are not so comfortable, and in many cases, they return to less efficient isocratic methods that are ultimately more time-consuming and costly.
There are many possible causes why ghost peaks may be observed in gradient HPLC, you will find some of them with our recommendations
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