Baseline Articles

Welcome to the Baseline archive.

Here you will find all of the articles featured in Baseline, as well as the past articles from Angle, listed in chronological order.

Baseline is Anatune's bi-annual online customer newsletter, bringing exciting news of interest to chromatographers everywhere.

Autumn Conference - Automation in the Chromatography Laboratory

by Ray Perkins, Managing Director - 1st July 2009

If you are interested in improving the quality of your data and reducing your costs, then this meeting will be of interest to you and your organisation.

The meeting will be held over two days - the 6th & 7th October 2009 at Down Hall Country House Hotel, Hatfield Heath, Essex (near Stansted Airport).

The conference will cover ways of automating existing manual methods of sample preparation and also showcases new technologies that offer the potential of improving on current practices.

New Technology for Volatile Organics from Entech Instruments

by Bob Green, Technical Director - 1st July 2009

Anatune has taken on the distribution of an exciting range of new products for the sampling and introduction of volatile organic compounds for GC and GC-MS.

Entech Instruments manufactures a comprehensive range of innovative pre-concentration, automation and sampling technologies that offer new approaches to the measurement of volatile (and some semi-volatile compounds) in air, soil, foods, human breath and most other matrices. The instrumentation is especially useful for the analysis of thermally unstable compounds such as formaldehyde.

Lower Limits of Detection for HPLC and LC-MS

by Ray Perkins, Managing Director - 1st July 2009

The lack of a sensitive universal detector for HPLC remains an issue. Anatune's TE-100 Trace Enrichment HPLC System addresses this problem by enabling the injection of sample volumes of up to 120ml, greatly improving limits of detection in some cases.

It is all too often the case that conventional HPLC systems don't quite deliver as much sensitivity as the analyst would like. The analyst has the option to move to LC-MS, where the mass spectrometer offers more sensitivity for most compounds - but at a cost. Alternatively, manual sample preparation can be adapted to include a concentration step, but this adds complexity and further sources of errors.

Automating FAMEs Derivatisation

by Ray Perkins, Managing Director - 1st July 2009

Analysing the fatty acid composition of lipids by GC is a very common analysis. It is important to food scientists, medical researchers, public analysts, biologists, clinicians and agricultural scientists to name just a few. Automation of the sample preparation is now possible.

Most scientists that perform this analysis run lots of samples and all have to perfom a derivatisation on their extracts before the samples can be run successfuly by gas chromatography. The process involves cleaving the triglyceride and forming the fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) of the fatty acids. FAME's derivatisation is a manual process that is lengthy, time consuming, prone to human error and long overdue for automation.

Chromatography Automation Conference a Huge Success

by Ray Perkins, Managing Director - 1st December 2008

On 1st & 2nd October, Anatune hosted a conference entitled 'Automation in the Chromatography Laboratory'. The event was run with the objective of introducing as many analysts as possible to the current benefits and practicalities of chromatography automation.

The event was strongly attended by analysts from a large number of organisations with a broad range of interests. Companies represented included Proctor & Gamble, BAT and Givaudan. The event was held at the fantastic Down Hall Country House Hotel in Hertfordshire, which will be the venue for next year's event also.

New HPLC Application Development Laboratory Opens

by Paul Roberts, LC/MS Applications Chemist - 1st December 2008

HPLC, Trace Enrichment, PAHs, Drinking Water Over the past 6 months, Anatune has built and equipped a brand new HPLC method development laboratory.

This new lab now enables us to develop HPLC based analytical packages, in addition to GC and GC/MS based solutions we already offer. Anatune has extensive automation skills, and these transfer readily to HPLC. Several application packages have already been developed that combine fully automated sample preparation with analysis by HPLC.

Continuing Development of GC & LC/MS Automation

by Bob Green, Technical Director - 1st December 2008

Most analytical laboratory managers face a future where sample numbers will continue to rise. This will be driven by both legislation and (in the case of the life sciences) the need to obtain statistically significant data.

One consequence of this will be a growing need for automation of the routine laboratory procedures associated with chromatographic analysis. Some time ago; we recognised this trend as a significant business opportunity and acted to make sure that we had both the products and know-how to satisfy our customer's automation requirements as they emerged.

In the combination of the GERSTEL PrepStation and Maestro software we have a first class automation platform upon which we can build fully crafted robotic application packages that can be either stand-alone or part of a fully integrated GC/MS or LC/MS package.

All About Thermal Extraction

by Ray Perkins, Managing Director - 25th February 2008

Direct thermal extraction uses a combination of heat and a flowing stream of inert gas to extract and then trap, volatile and semi-volatile analytes from solid materials, prior to analysis by GC or GC-MS. It can be a very attractive alternative to solvent extraction.

Compared to Soxhlet extraction for example:

The extraction process is faster (solvent extraction can take many hours)
Limits of detection can be excellent (down to low ppb)
Matrix interference can be reduced compared with solvent extraction
The risk of analytes being masked by the solvent is eliminated
There are no problems with target analytes (such as anti-oxidants) also being present in the solvent
A reduction in the use of hazardous (and expensive) high purity, solvents

Hydrogen as a Carrier for GCMS

by Nick Bukowski, Mass Spectrometry Specialist - 1st June 2008

As helium becomes ever more expensive, it is common to be asked if it is possible to use hydrogen as a carrier gas in the GCMS lab.

One of the first things any GC novice learns is how hydrogen is as an excellent carrier gas. It has the highest diffusivity of any gas and so offers the fastest separation and the highest resolution possible. It is cheap, high purity hydrogen is readily available and, as a reducing gas, it tends to protect the column against oxidation. If all of this is true for hydrogen - why does anyone use helium as a carrier gas?

Well, while hydrogen is a perfectly practical choice for gas chromatography with an FID, there are several major problems with its use in GCMS.

11 ways to cool a GC faster

by Ray Perkins, Managing Director - 13th December 2007

There are few things I dislike more than wasting time and hanging around for a GC to cool is a time-wasting activity.

Large Volume Liquid Injection is Back!

by Ray Perkins, Managing Director - 15th August 2007

GC has always had a problem with the narrow range of sample volumes that can be accommodated (0.1-2ul). This means that most methods involve either a dilution or concentration step. Large volume injection, using a PTV injector has always held the promise to extend this range to 100ul and beyond, enabling concentration steps to be eliminated altogether in many cases. This would remove a significant source of error and offer the potential of simpler, faster and cheaper sample preparation.

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