One of my roles as "LC Troubleshooting" editor is to field questions from readers about various problems with liquid chromatography (LC) separations. I am happy to provide answers, usually by e-mail (John.Dolan@LCResources.com
). I especially enjoy questions that are process-, technique-, or equipment-oriented. I also get frequent questions to the effect of "How do I separate A from B?" I will share a secret — I rarely answer questions of the latter kind, at least in the manner that the inquirer requests. There is a two-fold reason for this. First, I do not have much experience in some of the specific separation areas and I am not willing to do someone else's literature search. Second, I am a firm believer in the old adage to the effect of "Give a man a fish and you feed him for today, teach a man to fish and you feed him forever." In a similar manner, if you know where to look for help, you will not have to wait for an answer from me and you will develop the skills to solve the problems on your own.

For this month's discussion, I will share some of the key resources that I recommend using when you have one of those "How do I?" questions. I will also answer a reader's question that fits nicely into this context. Finally, I need to correct an error that appeared in a previous "LC Troubleshooting" column.

Where Is It Written?

Troubleshooting: I'll have to admit that I'm a bit prejudiced, but I don't think there is a more comprehensive troubleshooting book than Troubleshooting LC Systems.¹ Although the publication date is rather old, this book gives a detailed treatment of equipment operation, troubleshooting, and preventive maintenance. Equipment models have changed over the years, but the general principles still hold true. The same goes for treatment of separations problems. A more recent book that I like is Pitfalls and Errors of HPLC in Pictures.² In this clever treatment of LC troubleshooting, Veronika Meyer uses approximately 100 chromatograms and diagrams to illustrate various LC problems and accompanies each of these with a one-page discussion of the problem and solution. I read this book cover to cover in a couple evenings and found it quite good for chromatogram-oriented problems. This column in LCGC Europe, of course, is a great source of troubleshooting information, both specific and general. I know that many readers tear out each column and collect them in a notebook. You can access the last several years of columns on the LCGC Europe website.³ I have collected all 273 columns from the first one in 1983 through the end of 2007 in a CD collection that I call The 2008 Troubleshooting Bible.⁴ This comes with a PDF file of each column and a Windows help file that allows you to search the collection by keywords.