Troubleshooting High Performance Liquid Chromatography

 1.Peaks 

Broad peaks

Ghost peaks

Negative peaks

Peak doubling

Peak fronting

Peak tailing

Spikes

 2.Leaks 

Leak at column or fittings

Leak at detector

Leak at injection valve

Leak at pump

3.Recovery 

Poor sample recovery

4. Sensitivity 

Lack of sensitivity

5. Retention 

Changing retention times

Decreasing retention times

Increasing retention times

Retention beyond total permeation volume

6. Equilibration 

Slow column equilibration time

Varying retention times

7.Baseline 

Disturbance at void time

Drifting baseline

Noise

8. Pressure 

Decreasing pressure

Fluctuating pressure

High back pressure

Increasing pressure