Multiplexed dual second-dimension column comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × 2GC) using thermal modulation and contra-directional second-dimension columns

A multiplexed dual-secondary column comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography approach (GC × 2GC) designed for complex sample analysis is introduced. The approach splits the first-dimension column effluent into two second-dimension columns with different stationary phases, and recombines the two streams into one detector post-separation. The approach produces two single two-dimensional chromatograms for each injection. Careful manipulation of thermal modulator timing parameters combined with a novel contra-directional modulation regime facilitates this approach. A selection of 34 laboratory reference compounds containing n-alkanes, alcohols, aromatic hydrocarbons, ketones, esters and halogenated hydrocarbons were analysed to demonstrate the approach. The dual two-dimensional chromatogram from this single detector system provides complementary information due to the unique selectivity of the three separation columns. The results of this proof-of-principle investigation provide significant impetus for further development of GC × 2GC–MS methodology.     

Implementation of Hadamard encoding for rapid multisample analysis in liquid chromatography

Multiplexing based on pseudo‐binary modulation sequences is known to increase the signal‐to‐noise ratio. In this work, Hadamard transform multiplexing is used in high‐performance liquid chromatography to increase the sample throughput. Using structured modulation sequences to encode and control sample injections in combination with a fitting algorithm to deconvolute the complex data allowed us to evaluate convoluted chromatograms of up to 128 samples containing three and five analytes, respectively, with good accuracy (<2% deviation). In comparison to conventional high‐performance liquid chromatography the analysis time could be reduced by 30 and 55%, respectively.     

Resolution of overlapped chromatograms by means of the kalmam filter : Data Processing of Liquid Chromatographic Signals without Solvent Peaks

If several samples are injected successively at short intervals into a liquid chromatograph, overlapped chromatograms of the samples will result. This paper describes an application of this successive-injection method to determination of samples without solvent peaks. Twenty peaks in the overlapped chromatograms resulting from five successive injections of samples with four components (phenetole, biphenyl, pyrene and perylene) were resolved and quantified by a reduced four-dimensional Kalman filter. The period of the single chromatogram of the four components is ca. 14 min, and the period of the five overlapped chromatograms ca. 26 min, for injection intervals of 3 min. The calibration lines for the four components are all straight and satisfactory; the slope, A, of every line was 1.005>A>0.9996 with correlation coefficients better than 0.999992. This successive-injection method with the reduced Kalman filter is time-saving for trivial routine work.     

Ganoderma species discrimination by dual-mode chromatographic fingerprinting: A study on stationary phase effects in hydrophilic interaction chromatography and reduction of sample misclassification rate by additional use of reversed-phase chromatography

Acetonitrile–water extracts of several Ganoderma species – a mushroom being used in Traditional Chinese Medicine – were analysed by liquid chromatography–UV detection in hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) and reversed-phase (RP) elution modes. A set of six polar stationary phases was used for HILIC runs. These columns had remarkably different separation properties under binary gradient conditions as evinced by hierarchical cluster analysis on retention patterns of seven test compounds. Complementary measurements of RP chromatograms were carried out on a C₁₈ packing. Injection precision (n = 5) and intra-day precision (n = 5) were each <2.0% RSD (HILIC) and <0.7% RSD (RP) for relative retention times of main characteristic peaks of a sample extract while for relative peak areas RSD values were max. 6.8%. Repetitive analysis (n = 7) of a processed sample stored in the autosampler tray for 48 h was used to confirm within-sequence sample stability. Eleven Ganoderma lucidum samples served as training set for the construction of column-specific simulated mean chromatograms. Validation with twelve samples comprising G. lucidum, Ganoderma sinense, Ganoderma atrum, and Ganoderma tsugae by correlation coefficient based similarity evaluation of peak patterns showed that a discrimination of G. lucidum from other Ganoderma species by means of chromatographic fingerprints is conceptually possible on all columns, except of a bare silica packing. The importance of the combined use of RP and HILIC fingerprints to improve the rate of correct sample classification was demonstrated by the fact that each one G. sinense specimen was wrongly assigned being G. lucidum by all HILIC fingerprints but not the RP fingerprint and vice versa. The present data revealed that (i) the analysis of complex biological materials by quasi orthogonal chromatographic modes such as HILIC and RP may deliver more discriminative information than single-mode approaches which strengthens the reliability of fingerprint-based sample classification and (ii) different retention and selectivity characteristics of polar bonded silica packings in the HILIC elution mode may only have a minor impact on chemometric sample discrimination capabilities in such kind of pattern-oriented metabolomics separation problems.     

Profiling analysis of volatile compounds from fruits using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography and image processing techniques

An image processing approach originating from the proteomics field has been transferred successfully to the processing of data obtained with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatographic separations data. The approach described here has proven to be a useful analytical tool for unbiased pattern comparison or profiling analyses, as demonstrated with the differentiation of volatile patterns (“aroma”) from fruits such as apples, pears, and quince fruit. These volatile patterns were generated by headspace solid phase microextraction coupled to comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (HS-SPME-GC × GC). The data obtained from GC × GC chromatograms were used as contour plots which were then converted to gray-scale images and analyzed utilizing a workflow derived from 2D gel-based proteomics. Run-to-run variations between GC × GC chromatograms, respectively their contour plots, have been compensated by image warping. The GC × GC images were then merged into a fusion image yielding a defined and project-wide spot (peak) consensus pattern. Within detected spot boundaries of this consensus pattern, relative quantities of the volatiles from each GC × GC image have been calculated, resulting in more than 700 gap free volatile profiles over all samples. These profiles have been used for multivariate statistical analysis and allowed clustering of comparable sample origins and prediction of unknown samples. At present state of development, the advantage of using mass spectrometric detection can only be realized by data processing off-line from the identified software packages. However, such information provides a substantial basis for identification of statistically relevant compounds or for a targeted analysis.     

A simple approach to reduce dimensionality from comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography coupled with a multichannel detector

Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatographic (LC × LC) systems play an ever increasing role in separation and characterization of complex samples. When coupled with multichannel detectors, such as the diode array detector, these LC × LC systems become especially useful for non-target analysis and identification of patterns based on the information extracted from those complex samples. Nevertheless, due to the large amount of data generated by these systems, the extraction of useful information for the identification of patterns still is one of the major drawbacks for a wider application of this technique. As a preliminary step in data treatment, we have developed a simple and fast way to deal with this large amount of multi-dimensional data by identifying the three-dimensional (3D) regional maxima of each chromatographic peak generated in a LC × LC–DAD system: retention times at the peak maximum in the first- and second-dimensions and the wavelength of the maximum UV absorption. This dataset is then used to build a 3D fingerprinting of the given sample, which alongside the 3D fingerprinting of other samples, can be used to identify different patterns associated with the specific properties of every sample under study. The applicability of the developed methodology was further assessed by performing a non-target LC × LC–DAD analysis of four Portuguese red wine samples.     

Application of high performance liquid chromatography for the profiling of complex chemical mixtures with the aid of chemometrics

In this paper, chemometrics methods were applied to resolve the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprints of complex, many-component substances to compare samples from a batch from a given manufacturer, or from those of different producers. As an example of such complex substances, we used a common Chinese traditional medicine, Huoxiang Zhengqi Tincture (HZT) for this research. Twenty-one samples, each representing a separate HZT production batch from one of three manufacturers were analyzed by HPLC with the aid of a diode array detector (DAD). An Agilent Zorbax Eclipse XDB-C18 column with an Agilent Zorbax high pressure reliance cartridge guard-column were used. The mobile phase consisted of water (A) and methanol (B) with a gradient program of 25-65% (v/v, B) during 0-30 min, 65-55% (v/v, B) during 30-35 min and 55-100% (v/v, B) during 35-60 min (flow rate, 1.0 ml min⁻¹; injection volume, 20 μl; and column temperature-ambient). The detection wavelength was adjusted for maximum sensitivity at different time periods. A peak area matrix with 21 objects × 14 HPLC variables was obtained by sampling each chromatogram at 14 common retention times. Similarities were then calculated to discriminate the batch-to-batch samples and also, a more informative multi-criteria decision making methodology (MCDM), PROMETHEE and GAIA, was applied to obtain more information from the chromatograms in order to rank and compare the complex HZT profiles. The results showed that with the MCDM analysis, it was possible to match and discriminate correctly the batch samples from the three different manufacturers. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra taken from samples from several batches were compared by the common similarity method with the HPLC results. It was found that the FT-IR spectra did not discriminate the samples from the different batches.     

Trilinearity deviation ratio: A new metric for chemometric analysis of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry data

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC–TOFMS) is a well-established instrumental platform for complex samples. However, chemometric data analysis is often required to fully extract useful information from the data. We demonstrate that retention time shifting from one modulation to the next, Δ²t_R, is not sufficient alone to quantitatively describe the trilinearity of a single GC × GC–TOFMS run for the purpose of predicting the performance of the chemometric method parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC). We hypothesize that analyte peak width on second dimension separations, ²W_b, also impacts trilinearity, along with Δ²t_R. The term trilinearity deviation ratio, TDR, which is Δ²t_R normalized by ²W_b, is introduced as a quantitative metric to assess accuracy for PARAFAC of a GC × GC–TOFMS data cube. We explore how modulation ratio, M_R, modulation period, P_M, temperature programming rate, T_ramp, sampling phase (in-phase and out-of-phase), and signal-to-noise ratio, S/N, all play a role in PARAFAC performance in the context of TDR. Use of a P_M in the 1–2 s range provides an optimized peak capacity for the first dimension separation (500–600) for a 30 min run, with an adequate peak capacity for the second dimension separation (12–15), concurrent with an optimized two-dimensional peak capacity (6000–7500), combined with sufficiently low TDR values (0–0.05) to facilitate low quantitative errors with PARAFAC (0–0.5%). In contrast, use of a P_M in the 5 s or greater range provides a higher peak capacity on the second dimension (30–35), concurrent with a lower peak capacity on the first dimension (100–150) for a 30 min run, and a slightly reduced two-dimensional peak capacity (3000–4500), and furthermore, the data are not sufficiently trilinear for the more retained second dimension peaks in order to directly use PARAFAC with confidence.     

Influence of the peak height distribution on separation performances: Discrimination factor and effective peak capacity

Summary A new index of performance of the chromatographic separation between two adjacent peaks, the discrimination factor, d₀, is defined. It is normalized between 0 and 1 and is directly and easily determined from the chromatogram. It does not depend on any assumption regarding peak shape, except that the peak profiles of individual sample components have a single mode. Its value depends on the relative heights of the two peaks as well as on their separation. The separation power of a chromatographic system is classically measured by its peak capacity, defined on the basis of constant resolution between adjacent peaks. A previously developed statistical theory of the composition of mixtures makes it possible to extend the concept of peak capacity by taking into account the peak height distribution in typical average chromatograms. A new parameter, the effective peak capacity, is defined for this purpose on the basis of a constant discrimination factor between adjacent peaks. It allows to take into account the distribution of peak heights in statistical theories of the evaluation of complex chromatograms and in the measurement of the limit of determination in quantitative analysis. The characteristics of the two new parameters, the discrimination factor and effective peak capacity, are discussed and compared with those of their classical homologs, resolution and peak capacity, in the case of gaussian component peaks of equal widths.     

On-line HPLC combined with multivariate statistical process control for the monitoring of reactions

On-line high performance liquid chromatography is used to monitor a steady state reaction over 35.2 h, with 197 chromatograms recorded as the reaction progresses. For each chromatogram, peaks are detected, baseline corrected, aligned and integrated to provide a peak table consisting of the intensities of 19 peaks, two corresponding to the reactants, one to the product and one to the solvent, the remaining being impurities, by-products or intermediates. D-charts and Q-charts from multivariate statistical process control are applied to the data to determine which samples are out of control and also provide diagnostic insight into why these samples are problematic. The D-chart is best at looking at overall performance issues such as problems with mixing or difficulties with instrument operation, whereas the Q-charts are best at detecting impurities during the reaction.     

Direct analysis of formate in human plasma,serum and whole blood by in-line coupling of microdialysis to capillary electrophoresis for rapid diagnosis of methanol poisoning

A simple method using direct injection of human blood samples and quantitative analysis of formate was developed for rapid diagnosis of methanol poisoning. A sample pretreatment device including a 500 Da molecular weight cut-off dialysis membrane was in-line coupled to capillary electrophoresis with capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (CE-C⁴D). 50 μL of 1:9 diluted blood samples and 50 μL of DI water were filled into the donor and the acceptor chamber, respectively, and small ionic species in blood samples were electrokinetically injected across the dialysis membrane directly into the separation capillary. Matrix components, such as red blood cells, proteins, lipids and other high molecular weight compounds, were retained by the dialysis membrane and did not interfere with subsequent CE separation. Formate was separated from other small anions in an optimized background electrolyte solution consisting of 20 mM l-histidine and 25 mM l-glutamic acid at pH 4.8. The method showed excellent analytical parameters in terms of repeatability and linearity; RSD values for migration times and peak areas at a formate concentration typical for methanol poisoning were below 0.3% and 7.4%, respectively, and linear calibration curves with correlation coefficients better than 0.999 were obtained. Limit of detection and limit of quantification were 15 and 50 μM formate in original (undiluted) blood samples, respectively. The method was applied to determination of formate in serum samples of a patient diagnosed with acute methanol poisoning.     

Simultaneous analysis of two or more samples on the same chromatographic column

Summary Pseudo random binary and ternary sequences (PRBS and PRTS) have already been used to identify impulse responses of linear systems—in particular, we have shown [1,2], how decorrelation techniques allow the chromatogram of a given sample to be obtained by injecting the product following a PRBS or PRTS law. In this paper an additional difficulty is overcome by injecting in parallel two different samples onto one column, then obtaining simultaneously but separately the two chromatograms by use of numerical decorrelation. We present the theoretical justification and the result of numerical simulation in the case of a pseudo random ternary sequence injection law. A successful experiment on an actual chromatograph using a pseudo random binary sequence injection law is presented.     

Two dimensional assisted liquid chromatography – a chemometric approach to improve accuracy and precision of quantitation in liquid chromatography using 2D separation,dual detectors,and multivariate curve resolution

Comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC × LC) is rapidly evolving as the preferred method for the analysis of complex biological samples owing to its much greater resolving power compared to conventional one-dimensional (1D-LC). While its enhanced resolving power makes this method appealing, it has been shown that the precision of quantitation in LC × LC is generally not as good as that obtained with 1D-LC. The poorer quantitative performance of LC × LC is due to several factors including but not limited to the undersampling of the first dimension and the dilution of analytes during transit from the first dimension (¹D) column to the second dimension (²D) column, and the larger relative background signals. A new strategy, 2D assisted liquid chromatography (2DALC), is presented here. 2DALC makes use of a diode array detector placed at the end of each column, producing both multivariate ¹D and two-dimensional (2D) chromatograms. The increased resolution of the analytes provided by the addition of a second dimension of separation enables the determination of analyte absorbance spectra from the ²D detector signal that are relatively pure and can be used to initiate the treatment of data from the first dimension detector using multivariate curve resolution–alternating least squares (MCR–ALS). In this way, the approach leverages the strengths of both separation methods in a single analysis: the ²D detector data is used to provide relatively pure analyte spectra to the MCR–ALS algorithm, and the final quantitative results are obtained from the resolved ¹D chromatograms, which has a much higher sampling rate and lower background signal than obtained in conventional single detector LC × LC, to obtain accurate and precise quantitative results. It is shown that 2DALC is superior to both single detector selective or comprehensive LC × LC and 1D-LC for quantitation of compounds that appear as severely overlapped peaks in the ¹D chromatogram – this is especially true in the case of untargeted analyses. We also anticipate that 2DALC will provide superior quantitation in targeted analyses in which unknown interfering compounds overlap with the targeted compound(s). When peaks are significantly overlapped in the first dimension, 2DALC can decrease the error of quantitation (i.e., improve the accuracy by up to 14-fold compared to 1D-LC and up to 3.8-fold compared to LC × LC with a single multivariate detector). The degree of improvement in performance varies depending upon the degree of peak overlap in each dimension and the selectivities of the spectra with respect to one another and the background, as well as the extent of analyte dilution prior to the ²D column.     

提高芯片毛细管电泳系统检测信噪比的哈达玛变换法

采用门控进样,在简单的十字通道微流控玻璃芯片上实现了假随机多次进样,研究了利用哈达玛变换提高微流控毛细管电泳分析系统信噪比的方法.在实验中,以7阶127步假随机二进制序列作为进样模板,将缓冲液和Cy₅衍生后的氨基酸试样交替注入到分离通道中,检测到的电泳信号经过哈达玛反变换还原使信噪比提高5倍(理论上5.6倍)的电泳谱,各组分的出峰时间、峰高和峰形均完全还原,毛细管电泳分离的采样频率不受影响.     

Development and application of a validated stability-indicating HPLC method for simultaneous determination of granisetron hydrochloride, benzyl alcohol and their main degradation products in parenteral dosage forms

A simple, rapid and sensitive reversed phase high performance liquid chromatographic method using photodiode array detection was developed and validated for the simultaneous determination of granisetron hydrochloride, benzyl alcohol, 1-methyl-1H-indazole-3-carboxylic acid (the main degradation product of granisetron) and benzaldehyde (the main degradation product of benzyl alcohol) in granisetron injections. The separation was achieved on Hypersil BDS C8 (250 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm particle diameter) column using a mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile:0.05 M KH₂PO₄:triethylamine (22:100:0.15) adjusted to pH 4.8. The column was maintained at 25 °C and 20 μL of solutions was injected. Photodiode array detector was used to test the peak purity and the chromatograms were extracted at 210 nm. Naphazoline hydrochloride was used as internal standard. The method was validated with respect to specificity, linearity, accuracy, precision, limit of quantitation and limit of detection. The validation acceptance criteria were met in all cases. Identification of the pure peaks was carried out using library match programmer and wavelengths of derivative optima of the spectrograms of the peaks. The method was successfully applied to the determination of the investigated drugs and their degradation products in different batches of granisetron injections. The method was proved to be sensitive for the determination down to 0.03 and 0.01% of granisetron degradation product and benzaldehyde, respectively, which are far below the compendia limits for testing these degradation products in their corresponding intact drugs.     

Retention time alignment of LC/MS data by a divide-and-conquer algorithm

Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC/MS) has become the method of choice for characterizing complex mixtures. These analyses often involve quantitative comparison of components in multiple samples. To achieve automated sample comparison, the components of interest must be detected and identified, and their retention times aligned and peak areas calculated. This article describes a simple pairwise iterative retention time alignment algorithm, based on the divide-and-conquer approach, for alignment of ion features detected in LC/MS experiments. In this iterative algorithm, ion features in the sample run are first aligned with features in the reference run by applying a single constant shift of retention time. The sample chromatogram is then divided into two shorter chromatograms, which are aligned to the reference chromatogram the same way. Each shorter chromatogram is further divided into even shorter chromatograms. This process continues until each chromatogram is sufficiently narrow so that ion features within it have a similar retention time shift. In six pairwise LC/MS alignment examples containing a total of 6507 confirmed true corresponding feature pairs with retention time shifts up to five peak widths, the algorithm successfully aligned these features with an error rate of 0.2%. The alignment algorithm is demonstrated to be fast, robust, fully automatic, and superior to other algorithms. After alignment and gap-filling of detected ion features, their abundances can be tabulated for direct comparison between samples.     

On-line analysis of complex hydrocarbon mixtures using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography

This paper discusses the first setup for on-line qualitative and quantitative comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) of complex hydrocarbon mixtures. A built-in 4-port 2-way valve allows switching between flame ionization detection (FID) and time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) between runs, without the need to cool down and vent the MS. Proper selection of GC carrier gas flow rates enables maximal agreement between the obtained chromatograms in both configurations. For on-line analysis of reactor effluents, a dedicated sampling system allows automatic sampling of the hot reactor effluent gases and immediate injection of the sample on the GC × GC. To determine a complete effluent composition in a single run of the GC × GC, a subzero oven starting temperature was employed. Modulation is started when the oven temperature reaches 40 °C, thus dividing the chromatogram in a conventional 1D and a comprehensive 2D part. This work illustrates the mature and robust character of GC × GC, extending its capabilities from mere laboratory use to on-line routine analysis for industrial processes in the (petro-)chemical industry.     

Weak anion-exchange hypercrosslinked sorbent in on-line solid-phase extraction–liquid chromatography coupling to achieve automated determination with an effective clean-up

A mixed-mode polymeric sorbent was on-line coupled to liquid chromatography (LC) for the first time and applied to the selective solid-phase extract a group of pharmaceuticals in complex environmental water samples. The mixed-mode polymeric sorbent is a high-specific surface area hypercrosslinked polymer resin (HXLPP) in the form of monodisperse microspheres further modified with 1,2-ethylenediamine (EDA) moieties. These properties allow its application as a weak anion-exchange (WAX) sorbent in the on-line solid-phase extraction (SPE) coupling. The on-line SPE-LC method developed using the HXLPP-WAX sorbent was successfully applied to percolate a large volume of ultrapure (500 ml), river (250 ml) and effluent sewage (100 ml) water samples. In all the cases, the HXLPP-WAX resin provided near total recoveries of the most acidic compounds studied and clean chromatograms. This is because the ion-exchange interactions enable a washing step to be added to the SPE protocol that removes the compounds with weak acidic, neutral and basic properties from the sample matrix.     

Design and application of Hadamard-injectors coupled with gas and supercritical fluid sample collection systems in Hadamard transform-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

A novel Hadamard transform-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (HT-GC/MS) system equipped with on-line sample collection systems is described. A Hadamard-injector was successfully designed and then coupled with an on-line adsorption/desorption system for detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and a supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) system, respectively, by HT-GC/MS. Six VOCs and three pesticides were used as model compounds. In the former case, an activated-charcoal trap was used to trap VOCs from the indoor air. After 10 L of indoor air had passed through the trap, the condensed components were heated and simultaneously injected into the GC column through the Hadamard-injector, based on Hadamard codes. In a second experiment, a sample of rice was spiked with three types of pesticides and the sample then extracted using a commercially available supercritical fluid extractor. After extraction, the extracted components were transferred to a holding tank and simultaneously injected into the GC column also using the Hadamard-injector. The findings show that, in both cases, the combination of on-line sample collection methods and the use of the Hadamard transform resulted in improved sensitivity and detection. Compared to the single injection used in most GC/MS systems, the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratios were substantially improved after inverse Hadamard transformation of the encoded chromatogram.     

A novel determination of peak areas for application on large computers

Summary A computer program with some new algorithms for the determination of peak areas of gas chromatograms has been developed which has been used for several years with a satellite computer system. In contrast to most gc-programs the first and second derivatives of the curve are not used for peak detection. The maximum of a peak is defined by ordinates of the sample points alone; the base line is constructed by drawing curves of higher order through those parts of the chromatogram which are defined to be base line by special criteria. Consequently, the peak areas on the tailing of a solvent are determined more correctly than with skimming and, furthermore, the calculated base line of chromatograms with temperature program and subsequent isothermal run can be approximated to the real base line. The base line divides the chromatogram into several peak groups which are further separated by the democratic distribution method. This program is best suited for nonroutine analysis in research laboratories, because only a few input parameters are necessary for peak area determination with unknown chromatograms.