I am looking for a software that does automated retention time allignment of GCFID data. Can anybody suggest?
Agilent offers a "Retention Time Locking" feature, but it is not clear from your question if that is what you are looking for. Additionally, most CDS provide offset time features which can adjust the time scales on any chromatogram. Of course changing or adjusting the time scale often means a failure in validation or compliance.
The question I have is "WHY do you want to automatically align a series of chromatograms?" What is your goal and the purpose for doing so? Are you just trying to overlay a group of chromatograms for easier comparison? If so, just use the signal overlay feature to do so. The answer to this question will help narrow down which methods might be scientifically acceptable and which simply invite trouble.
Hi Bill,
Thanks for your input. I should have explained things a bit more.
We have a Shimadzu GC-FID and we are after unknown compounds from 3 different algae.
We want to align for easire comparison and do further data processing.
Any further suggestions?
Thanks and regards. M. Saha.
Please be more specific. Align what to what? To align something, you need to establish a benchmark or standard time point (or Peak in this case). Failure to do so can introduce error as you will have no way to insure that each analysis run is consistent with the last one for comparison purposes (Scientific Method basics). If your goal is to compare multiple chromatograms then just use the software's signal load overlay feature. This will provide you with a view of multiple samples, each in one color, so you can quickly "see" what the differences are. The software can also plot these for you as part of a custom report AFTER you run the specified number of runs. However, if this is what you want to do, then I would strongly suggest that you include an early eluting (K1 ~ 1.5 - 2.0) standard in all samples. This can be used as your benchmark std for Rt purposes and also to insure the runs are all the same (no significant variation seen). If the total run time is more than 20 minutes, then you may want to include an additional standard that elutes rather late in the run (before the last peak) to bracket the results and confirm reliability run to run.
As I always say, the instrument data obtained is only as good as the training the operator has and the quality of the method used to obtain it.
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