Local resolution of hyphenated chromatographic data

Subwindow factor analysis (SFA), a new local resolution method, is applied to the resolution of the target analyte in strongly overlapping chromatographic peaks. Making full use of information hidden in overlapping regions, SFA success fully resolved the spectrum of the analyte of interest. Orthogonal projection is then used to obtain the corresponding chromatographic profile. The separation ability of chromatography is greatly enhanced with this local resolution method. It can be directly used for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the target analytes for the hyphenated two-way chromatographic data. The geometrical meaning implied in this procedure is also discussed. Real and simulated examples are given to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.