An expert system for the selection of criteria for selectivity optimization in high-pressure liquid chromatography

Summary Systematic procedures for the optimization of chromatographic selectivity require objective criteria to characterize the quality of separation in a chromatogram. Numerous criteria have been suggested. Different criteria yield different results and the choice will depend on a large number of factors. It is genuinely difficult to select the most suitable criterion in a particular situation. For these reasons, an expert system has been developed to assist chromatographers in the selection of optimization criteria. A structured representation of the required knowledge and its implementation in an expert-system shell are presented in this paper.