2000 MS Hardware Maintenance
146
Troubleshooting
Typical Chromatogram of COLTEST Text Mixture
The following figure demonstrates the resolving power of Saturn for coeluting
compounds.
Resolution of Saturn for Coeluting Compounds
You can also effectively separate the individual components in the mixture for
subsequent data manipulation, e.g., library searches and quantitation. For
details about plotting single ion chromatograms for ions specific to a single
compound, please refer to the SaturnView
help or section in the Software
Reference manual.
How to Troubleshoot Common Chromatographic
Problems
The COLTEST mixture includes polar or active compounds such as 1-octanol,
2,6-dimethylphenol, and 2,6-dimethylaniline. Also present are some nonpolar or
inactive compounds such as decane and dodecane at approximate levels of 1
ppm in hexane. Analysis of the mixture yields information about solvent tailing,
column efficiency, dead volume, active sites in the injector/column, etc. You can
use the analysis to troubleshoot common chromatographic problems. The
following table identifies many of the problems, and proposes solutions.
