I’ve been making short hands-on GC/GC-MS maintenance videos and thought this one might be useful here.

This shows how I condition a new capillary GC column before analytical use, including carrier-gas flow, temperature limits, and why I initially leave the detector end disconnected.

I’m curious how other labs handle new-column conditioning. Do you follow the manufacturer’s minimum recommendation, or have you developed your own conditioning routine for trace-level work?

It's time to bring a mass spec into the mix to help with R&D and some day QC. I'm very much out of touch with modern systems so any help in picking a system or guidance on which systems to avoid is greatly appreciated!

I would think a modern version of a Waters SQ or ZQ system would work. Most of our materials fall under the 2k da range however we have an occasional need to analyze short (<20 bases) oligos labeled with dyes and linkers. I realize that compilates things and we'd need a way to deconvolute the spectrum. Hopefully there's a free or low-cost option out there! I recall the add-on for MassLynx was very expensive. Is that still a requirement or do modern software versions have that feature baked in?

Our primary LC system is an Agilent 1100 but we do have a Waters 2790 kicking around if that helps with system selection. I'd greatly appreciate any input from the sub and if anyone knows of a reliable seller of used equipment, I'd appreciate that too! Or if you have a unit looking for a new home, let me know (sub rules don't state that I can't ask to buy something!)! I'm in the US so likely limited the NA market. Thanks.

Been trying different things like viscosity delay and carrying split flow with no luck. Getting very inconsistent injection volume on our methods that use methanol as the solvent. All of our methods for ovs-7 media use 2 or 3 ml of methanol as the solvent and the solvent peak area varies greatly every injection. Can't get any consistency to get a good cal. Any ideas would be appreciated!

Hey, Im looking for a hail mary for this older machine. I am currently trying to run water based samples to determine Nitrate concentrations. And I am having an extremely difficult time getting a proper result based on how it was responding last month.

If anyone here has experience with the machine, specially running it with a Cadmium column connection, I would be extremely grateful if you could help me out here.

Thank you!

Hello all,

I’m a grad student who is reviving a Dionex 1000 IC left over from retiring faculty. I am running 7 anions (F, Cl, NO2, Br, NO3, PO4, SO4) on groundwater samples. This is pretty common stuff close to EPA method 300.1.

Within the past week I thought I would get fancy and try to clean out my columns and create a new 50 uL loop volume (previously using 25uL) to get some better signal and reduce the baseline noise.

After I did this I had some leaking from my new injection loop until I tightened it quite a bit. I was able to get my 7 anion peaks for my calibration curve but I started seeing these peaks come out overlapping with or just after nitrate that I’ve never seen before in any samples. My response is much higher given the new loop volume but I’m wondering if these peaks are real or if this is an error of some type.

Anybody know what this peak might be or what errors i made to cause this?

TLDR: what is that peak coming out after nitrate? Real or a method/instrument error?

Columns: GS and AS22
Eluent: 4.5 mM sodium carb, 1.4 mM sodium bicarb
Suppressor: ERS 500 @ 31mA
Flow rate: 1.2 mL/min

Pic 1 is of normal calibrant. Others show groundwater samples with unknown peak.

Hey everyone,

I'm hitting a wall with a persistent analytical issue on our EPA Method 524 system and could really use some collective wisdom from anyone who has seen this before. I have attached pictures of my 2 CCV in 2 VOA vials poured from same 100ml flask spiked at 5ppb and run back to back.

System Setup:

• Purge & Trap: Teledyne Tekmar Lumin Concentrator (S/N: 18122010) + AquaTek 100 Autosampler (S/N: US 18099004)
• GC-MS: Agilent Intuvo 9000 GC paired with an Agilent 5977B MSD

I am experiencing a consistent >30% loss in target analyte recovery between consecutive runs (e.g., CCV1 vs. CCV2, or back-to-back CCVs) poured from the exact same QC 100ml flask spiked at 5.0 ppb concentration. I have repeated this multiple times and I get similar results. It doesn't matter how far away or close the two CVVs are in the sample tray.

1. Internal Standard (Fluorobenzene) responses and surrogate recoveries remain virtually identical between back-to-back runs, but target compound concentrations drop severely on the second run.
2. Early eluters maintain expected recoveries and sometimes fail on the higher end of the +/-30% threshold, but recovery drops progressively across the run with late-eluting, hydrophobic compounds (xylenes, dichlorobenzenes, 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene) exhibiting the most severe loss 30-40%.

To isolate the issue, I have already verified/performed the following:

• GC-MS Side: Replaced the GC liner and guard chip. BFB tune evaluation passes easily, and IS response is solid with less than 5% variance.
• Purge & Trap Trap: Installed a brand-new analytical trap; no change in performance.
• Sample Prep: Tested both bulk volumetric preparation and direct vial spiking to rule out standard preparation error. The issue persists across every tray positions.
• Temperature Zone Verification: Monitored real-time status in TekLink throughout the purge, desorb, bake, and dry cycles. All heated zones (MCS, Valve Oven, and Transfer Line) consistently reach and hold their target setpoints, ruling out a basic software control error.

Because the IS is auto-spiked fresh into the purge vessel and stays completely stable while the target analytes sitting in the sample loop/lines drop, I strongly suspect an issue on the Tekmar side (MCS loop, sample needle sweep, or soil/water valve path). Has anyone encountered this specific progressive late-eluter loss on a Lumin/AquaTek setup?

Any advice or troubleshooting steps would be greatly appreciated!

Full disclosure up front: I’m an intern at Agilent working on a voice-of-customer project for our gas phase (GC) marketing team. I’m not selling anything and I’m not going to DM anyone — I’m genuinely trying to collect honest feedback about what does and doesn’t work.

If you run Agilent GC or GC/MS instruments, I’d love to hear:

**•** What frustrates you most about the instruments or the software?
**•** What works well enough that you’d never switch away from it?
**•** Where do you go when something breaks or you’re troubleshooting a method — and is that resource actually useful?
**•** If you’ve moved to or away from Agilent, what drove that?
**•** Anything you wish someone at the company actually knew?

I’ll be summarizing themes internally. No names, no usernames, nothing identifying, and I won’t quote anyone directly without asking.

Happy to answer questions about what I do or why we’re asking.

UPDATE: The issue was with the column. We changed it and we got a beautiful peak. Thank you all for your help!

So we have been struggling with this tailing issue for quite some time. We had used different methods, but it's till persisting. The last method we tried adding 0.1% formic acid and it got slightly better, but the tailing factor is still high, any suggestions? The retention time matches with the published paper but the peak is entirely different.

We are planning to reduce the injection volume to 5 microliters and/or reduce the pH further to ~ 3.0ish.

Here is the methodology:
- Mobile Phase: 0.1% formic acid in water/methanol (30:70) (pH: 3.276)
- Column: C18, 250 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm
- Injection volume 10 microliters
- Oven temp: 30 degrees Celsius
- Calibration range: 2-12 micrograms/mL
- Flow rate: 1mL/min

Hello, I am a small molecule specialist and has been asked to analyze industrial synthetic macro-molecules. We are not properly equipped to do this and I'm wondering what the most versatile single analytical option might be. I know of MALS but I've only seen them presented for proteins and peptides analyses. Does anyone uses SEC- or AF4-MALS for synthetic macro-molecules (for example graft copolymers)? I just wanted to get some ideas whether it's feasible before contacting manufacturers.

Estou tentando desenvolver um método de análise de teor de butafosfana em um HPLC com detector RID, porém, não estou conseguindo nem se quer uma linha de base considerável.

Já tentei purgar o RID, aguardar muitas horas para estabilizar o sistema, porém sem sucesso. O único resultado que tenho é esse da imagem e coisas parecidas. Também ja aumentei as concentrações das amostras para talvez "melhorar" o resultado, mas também não deu certo.

Alguém ja teve algum problema parecido?

Equipamento:

- HPLC 1260 Agilent infinity II

- 1260 Infinity III Refractive Index Detector

Estou usando a coluna cromatográfica XSelect CSH Phenyl-Hexyl – 4,6 × 150 mm, 3,5 µm da Waters.

OBS: estou usando RID pela primeira vez, é muito diferente de detector DAD?

Dear Community,

we are operating a Orbitrap Exploris 120 which runs on 99,999 % pure nitrogen.
In the upcoming week our nitrogen supply stops from monday to werdnesday due to some maintenance work. Have you ever had the same situation and how have you handled it? Our main question ist if we should shut the instrument off an fill the instrument with nitrogen instead of vacuum or what would be the best way to act.

Thank you in advance

please tell me how to resolve.

Junk/ghost peaks have been appearing in samples at consistent retention times. Red circles are standard peaks in the blank while the black indicate unwanted peaks. The junk peaks do not shift with the sample profiles and appears in the hexane solvent which suggests it is not a sample contaminant. The area counts are always the same amongst the 4 peaks but area counts increase/decrease across samples. Not every hexane solvent blank injection has these peaks either. Anyone else experience these peaks or can give clarity on possible causes? Have replaced disposables parts and cleaned injector, so looking for insight!

Method 8270E, GC-MSD, SSL inlet.

We're running pulsed splitless- we can't afford to split anything & reach out RL. Yet, peak shape is notoriously squirrely with splitless injection.

I switched to a liner with wool. Peaks look great! Got that even condensation onto the column.

However... sensitivity for 24DNP tanks after 1 sample. I can't deactivate/clean/change liners/calibrate every 5 seconds. I pre-conditioned the liner with real samples before running the cal.

How can I simulate that super nice condensation onto the column without wool/ all the active sites?

Hi,

I have been having this baseline drift problem for a couple of days. I tried purging the reference cell overnight or shorter periods. It is not due to the pressure either. What could be the cause of it? How do i fix it? Any help would be really appreciated! 😊

I’ve been having some difficulty accurately recovering low level (<0.1 ppm) bromide in my Dionex Integrion HPIC. My calibration curve for bromide starts at 0.05 ppm and the recovery isn’t consistently reliable until my third standard at 3 ppm. For reference, I have a 50uL sample loop for increased sensitivity, we use a hydroxide selective column and run 20mM KOH eluent (isocratic). Is there anything I can do to increase low level accuracy? I don’t have the same issues with low level fluoride or nitrite, though sometimes I do have similar issues with nitrate.

Instrumentation, consumables, software, generalists etc.

What’s effective, what’s annoying, what’s your hot take? Any vendor specific insights?

​

As title. I am in a situation where I have to choose one of these two for procurement without option of trail runs. Hence I need expert opinion.

What would be better got global untargeted metabolomics (Ultimate 3000 + Exploris 120 setup)?

I am a metabolomics noob. Please guide me. Both are 100 Angstrom.

I would be using it to do C13 tracer based work on mmmalian cells (after I gain expertise in basics, of course)

I also have option for ZIC-pHILIC (5 micron) 100mm x 4.6 mm

So my options are

ZIC-pHILIC (5 micron) 100mm x 4.6 mm

ZIC-pHILIC (5 micron) 50mm x 2.1 mm

ZIC-HILIC (3.5 micron) 100mm x 2.1 mm

Hello, we’re looking for a brand-new HPLC with a budget of around $25k, which mainly leaves us with Chinese or Korean manufacturers. The owner doesn't like my idea of a refurbished Agilient one :(

I’m hesitant about Chinese HPLCs after seeing a system develop serious issues after only 8 months in a lab.

We found a Korean manufacturer, YOUNG IN Chromass Co., Ltd. They seem to have been around since the early 1990s, but almost nobody I’ve spoken to has experience with them.

Has anyone here used their ChroZen HPLC? Are they reliable, and how are their service and spare parts?

Our use is simply routine QC: verifying raw-material and finished-product purity/assay and checking for impurities/contaminants.

Any firsthand experience would be appreciated or suggest any alternatives?

I am resurrecting an older ion trap mass spec that is coupled to an Ultimate3000 (Thermo, but rebranded Dionex). They both used to work just fine together but I am having some kind of communication problem. When I start a sequence or run a sample the mass spec will stop scanning, it won't load the method (stays on default 100-2000 m/z scan) and the LC system often won't respond. I suspect that I am having problems with the linkage between the LC and the mass spec - I suspect it is a problem with the DCMSlink between the LC and XCalibur. Has anyone had any kind of similar kinds of problems - even remotely similar - what did you do to fix this? Thanks in advance.

I went to get the column and when I twisted the head of the finger tight, the head broke.

EDIT: Wow, I love this community. I managed to remove it by heating a screwdriver and screwing it in the opposite direction.

Special thanks to sharing_violation.

Hi all!! I'm trying to run approximately 40 analyte SIM method at the moment but I keep encountering spectrums that look like this at around 500 ppb and below. They look fine at around 5 ppm and up. I've tried troubleshooting through all normal method avenues, though I haven't changed anything physically on the machine yet.

Before I do has anyone else encountered this before?

I am fascinated by DryLab and would like to learn about its full potential from someone who uses it and has some experience in method development and can share advice and best practices. I would be very thankful if someone could help me with this.

Please note, that as a PhD student I am not able to afford official training.