Chromatographers know that when a liquid chromatograph or high-performance liquid chromatograph is working, no bubbles can enter the system, otherwise problems such as peaks, unstable pressure fluctuations, and baseline noise will occur. Usually, it is necessary to deal with the problem of air bubbles in advance. It is not so easy if you wait for the air bubbles to enter the system and want to deal with them.
Filtering and degassing the mobile phase in advance is a better solution. You might be thinking, should I filter the HPLC-grade solvents I choose for experimental analysis? The answer is: still have to filter! You can choose a solvent filter for mobile phase filtration to filter out impurities and prevent air from entering the system. UHPLCS solvent filter can effectively filter out the solid particles in the mobile phase, without generating bubbles, and the solvent utilization rate reaches 99%, avoiding the waste of excessive solvent remaining in the solvent bottle.
The solvent filter head should be cleaned regularly to avoid clogging of impurities and contaminating the filter. The clogging of impurities will reduce the speed of the liquid flowing into the filter head. The pump will force the liquid to generate vacuum bubbles, which not only generates bubbles but also affects the service life of the product.
There are many reasons for bubbles, and they are even related to the season. Did you know? In summer, the room temperature is high and reagents with low boiling points may vaporize in this temperature environment, and the mobile phase vaporization will also produce bubbles! For example, the boiling point of ether is 34.5 degrees Celsius, and the temperature can even reach 40 degrees Celsius in the southern summer! Chromatographers must pay attention to the room temperature in the laboratory and keep the reagents!
The flow cell is also a place where bubbles are easily generated, and once the flow cell contains bubbles, it will have a great impact on the baseline. Also pay attention when injecting samples. When aspirating samples with a syringe, pay attention to removing the air in the injection needle to avoid bringing bubbles into the system.
Today I just briefly shared some of the reasons for the bubbles. During the experiment, it is still necessary to troubleshoot all aspects of the problem, find the problem and solve it! If you want to know more about liquid chromatography related inquiries, follow Hengpusheng and share it with you regularly!
Post time: Sep-28-2021
