A FULLY AUTOMATED CHROMATOGRAPHIC PEAK DETECTION AND TREATMENT SOFTWARE FOR MULTIUSER MULTITASK COMPUTERS

A fully automated method is presented for the detection and integration of chromatographic peak software in which the only parameter to define is the data acquisition frequency; this has to be chosen high enough to minimize some Nyquist frequency problems. Programmed in C language, the software is used on a Unix like system (Xenix) to emphasize its automaticity. The performance of the system in liquid chromatography has been studied in respect of noise frequency and intensity. It is shown that the classical signal-to-noise ratio is obsolete for definition of the detection limit since frequency analysis allows some signal filtration; these limitations are described. An example is given of simulation with Gaussian peaks convoluted with noise characterized by its intensity and frequency distribution. The validity of the software is demonstrated for some HPLC separations.