Artifacts in Liquid-Phase Separations-System, Solvent, and Impurity Peaks

A study was conducted to investigate artifacts in liquid-phase separations-system, solvent, and impurity peaks. Solvent peaks were observed when nonselective detectors were used. It was also possible to observe solvent peaks on a chromatogram recorded by a specific detector. Changes in the refractive index of an organic modifier mixture with water were easily detectable with the use of a refractive index detector. This detection method made solvent peaks the most observable, while a change in the refractive index of solvent passing through the UV detector caused deflection of a part of the radiation beam from the optical path. The investigations revealed that the retention volume and the shape of the system peaks did not depend on separated sample components. It was observed that a peak was unable to occur in a chromatogram when a pure solvent was used as a mobile phase and injected.