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Practical HPLC methodology
VI
trendsinanalythalchemistry, vol.13,no. 3, 1994
Practical HPLC methodology
Practical HPLC Methodology and Applications, by B. Bidlingmeyer Wiley, Chichester, 1992, f45.50 (x + 450 pages), ISBN O-471-57246-2
This book’s preface and title suggest that the book will: “provide the novice with sufficient practical information necessary to begin developing useful separations.“, and on this premise, the book succeeds very nicely. The text is clear and readable, and covers all of the essential, basic areas of HPLC that anyone wishing to perform and evaluate a chromatographic separation must be familiar with in order to achieve overall success. The descriptions of the various chromatographic techniques and mechanisms now available for achieving a given separation based on the structural properties of the analyte(s) are excellent. Several of the reference lists at the end of each chapter are not always current or complete, and in several instances, the majority of the references are from the author’s own bibliography or personal recollections, rather than the open literature. More could have been done to provide a truly comprehensive, representative, current set of additional references. It is an unusual book in that it attempts to bridge the gap between a very basic, fundamental type of book of a purely introductory nature and one for more advanced practitioners. Thus, it can be used by novices, biologically oriented researchers, synthetic researchers, and so forth, as well as those with more experience in practical and theoretical HPLC areas. The emphasis is on practical applications with methods development, methods optimization, and methods validation. The author’s wealth of experience in many applications areas are all brought to bear in this one book, with
unusual success. Clearly the book is driven by the author’s desire to teach people how to make the best use of their HPLC instrumentation and persuasions. Thus, there is a de-emphasis on fundamental theories, fundamental equations, and even fundamental principles, without detracting from the ability of the readers to understand why and how they are using HPLC instrumentation. This book can be taken down from the shelf and used as a reference tool. It can also be used as a teaching text at the undergraduate or even graduate levels, and it can be used for self-teaching at the beginning levels. It can also be used by those much more experienced in HPLC areas, who just want to develop a newer application or improve an existing one. The book is highly recommended for the above reasons and purposes. However, if someone is searching for a more in-depth understanding of exactly how HPLC works on the molecular level, then that information may not be easily forthcoming. If it is basic theory, equations, and concepts that are wanted, other texts already in print are suggested by the current author. There is a very good discussion chapter on chromatographic principles, equations, calculations, and descriptions of how to make the usual calculations of column performance, such as capacity factor, resolution, a values, and so forth. We do not suggest that the author has completely avoided all discussion of theory, but these are minimized in favour of practical treatments, such as explanations of how and why to change mobile phase modifiers, flow-rate alterations, gradient elution choices, and so forth. For laboratory technicians and students who wish to learn more about the how-to of practical applications in HPLC, this is the book. There are, of
course, several areas that have, perhaps intentionally, been omitted from the current text. These include: derivatizations for enhanced chromatography and detection, analysis for peptides and proteins in biofluids, perfusion chromatography, immunodetection in HPLC, affinity chromatography, immunochromatographic analysis, and so forth. There might have been more discussion of the desired properties of a data collection and reduction system for HPLC, perhaps in Chapter 3. A strip-chart recorder may be appropriate for an undergraduate laboratory experiment, but is this what one would normally see used in a high tech or biotech environment? However, it is never feasible, practical or even desirable to include all possible more advanced areas into a book that is really dedicated to novices and somewhat more experienced practitioners. The book is truly novel in that it contains a large number of practical experiments in HPLC methods development, and these are perhaps a very strong suit of the entire book. These chapters follow the basic discussion chapters, and form the second half of the book. These are superb experiments in the fundamentals of HPLC operations, and should be ideal for an undergraduate or even graduate analytical laboratory. They are particularly helpful in that each experiment has included representative chromatograms of the anticipated results, often using several different types of commercial columns. IS. KRULL and R. STRONG IS. Krull and R. Strong are at the Department of Chemistv, Northeastern University, Hurtig Building, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
trendsinanalythalchemistry, vol.13,no. 3, 1994
Practical HPLC methodology
Practical HPLC Methodology and Applications, by B. Bidlingmeyer Wiley, Chichester, 1992, f45.50 (x + 450 pages), ISBN O-471-57246-2
This book’s preface and title suggest that the book will: “provide the novice with sufficient practical information necessary to begin developing useful separations.“, and on this premise, the book succeeds very nicely. The text is clear and readable, and covers all of the essential, basic areas of HPLC that anyone wishing to perform and evaluate a chromatographic separation must be familiar with in order to achieve overall success. The descriptions of the various chromatographic techniques and mechanisms now available for achieving a given separation based on the structural properties of the analyte(s) are excellent. Several of the reference lists at the end of each chapter are not always current or complete, and in several instances, the majority of the references are from the author’s own bibliography or personal recollections, rather than the open literature. More could have been done to provide a truly comprehensive, representative, current set of additional references. It is an unusual book in that it attempts to bridge the gap between a very basic, fundamental type of book of a purely introductory nature and one for more advanced practitioners. Thus, it can be used by novices, biologically oriented researchers, synthetic researchers, and so forth, as well as those with more experience in practical and theoretical HPLC areas. The emphasis is on practical applications with methods development, methods optimization, and methods validation. The author’s wealth of experience in many applications areas are all brought to bear in this one book, with
unusual success. Clearly the book is driven by the author’s desire to teach people how to make the best use of their HPLC instrumentation and persuasions. Thus, there is a de-emphasis on fundamental theories, fundamental equations, and even fundamental principles, without detracting from the ability of the readers to understand why and how they are using HPLC instrumentation. This book can be taken down from the shelf and used as a reference tool. It can also be used as a teaching text at the undergraduate or even graduate levels, and it can be used for self-teaching at the beginning levels. It can also be used by those much more experienced in HPLC areas, who just want to develop a newer application or improve an existing one. The book is highly recommended for the above reasons and purposes. However, if someone is searching for a more in-depth understanding of exactly how HPLC works on the molecular level, then that information may not be easily forthcoming. If it is basic theory, equations, and concepts that are wanted, other texts already in print are suggested by the current author. There is a very good discussion chapter on chromatographic principles, equations, calculations, and descriptions of how to make the usual calculations of column performance, such as capacity factor, resolution, a values, and so forth. We do not suggest that the author has completely avoided all discussion of theory, but these are minimized in favour of practical treatments, such as explanations of how and why to change mobile phase modifiers, flow-rate alterations, gradient elution choices, and so forth. For laboratory technicians and students who wish to learn more about the how-to of practical applications in HPLC, this is the book. There are, of
course, several areas that have, perhaps intentionally, been omitted from the current text. These include: derivatizations for enhanced chromatography and detection, analysis for peptides and proteins in biofluids, perfusion chromatography, immunodetection in HPLC, affinity chromatography, immunochromatographic analysis, and so forth. There might have been more discussion of the desired properties of a data collection and reduction system for HPLC, perhaps in Chapter 3. A strip-chart recorder may be appropriate for an undergraduate laboratory experiment, but is this what one would normally see used in a high tech or biotech environment? However, it is never feasible, practical or even desirable to include all possible more advanced areas into a book that is really dedicated to novices and somewhat more experienced practitioners. The book is truly novel in that it contains a large number of practical experiments in HPLC methods development, and these are perhaps a very strong suit of the entire book. These chapters follow the basic discussion chapters, and form the second half of the book. These are superb experiments in the fundamentals of HPLC operations, and should be ideal for an undergraduate or even graduate analytical laboratory. They are particularly helpful in that each experiment has included representative chromatograms of the anticipated results, often using several different types of commercial columns. IS. KRULL and R. STRONG IS. Krull and R. Strong are at the Department of Chemistv, Northeastern University, Hurtig Building, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA.