Dear Colleagues,

Our lab recently acquired a PDZ-Europa GC-CP system (Agilent 6890 with
Europa's Orchid module), linked to a PDZ-Europa 20-20 MS.  We are doing
work with FAMEs derived from soil extracts.  I am hoping to correspond with
someone with a similar system to verify that we are getting satisfactory
performance out of our instrument.

My concern is about the degree of peak broadening and loss of resolution as
the sample goes through the C-P interface - I can see that there is
considerable loss of peak resolution when I compare the chromatograms
generated from the GC --> FID vs the GC--> C-P--> MS.  While I recognize
that the combustion process will inevitably cause a loss of some peak
resolution, I'm not sure that what I'm getting is as good as I should
expect or if there is some problem.  Peak resolution is an issue of concern
for our work because the soil extracts are pretty messy and we have quite a
large number of peaks, and many of these peaks, which are well separated by
the column (as I can see from the GC-->FID), are not resolved when they run
through C-P and Mass spec.

I will send example scan files to anyone with this type of system willing
to offer advice.


Thanks

Harry Read

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Harry W. Read
Dept. of Soil Science
1525 Observatory Dr.
Madison, WI  53706
(608) 265-4848
FAX: (608) 265-2595
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