Training for Chem station... basic basic

[irishtangerine]

Hi everyone,
I'm new (clearly) and I have a very simple question. Are there any good learning tools, websites, or videos that can walk me through the process of analyzing chromatograms on chemstation? I have all my samples run and have gone through the software manual, but they throw around terms like integration, quantitative analysis, removing the background, etc. so I'm looking for more of a step-by-step training, sort of like "So you have your chromatograph, the first thing you do is (fill in the blank)." I'm not sure if it matters, but I'm working with thermal desorption.

I would appreciate any guidance! As much as I wish, I wasn't born with this knowledge so I'm looking to get some help.

[tangaloomaflyer]

What version of chemstation are you running? Is it MSD chemstation or just chemstation?

[lmh]

You have a problem that can be split into two fundamentally separate parts.

If you want to know about "integration", what it is, and the basic idea, then really what you need is a simple, straightforward introduction to the fundamentals of chromatography, without reference to any particular software, manufacturer or system. You could look in your organisation's library in case they have a suitable textbook, or you could sign up for the sponsored lite version of ChromAcademy or similar online training programs (I'd strongly recommend this!). This will help you understand the process of separation, detection of peaks, what a chromatogram looks like, and how you process it to find the area under peaks, and how this relates to concentration (how to make a calibration curve etc.).

Next you have the problem of applying these general ideas within the context of your software. I think once the general ideas are in place, the instruction manuals will make more sense. If they don't, then it is time to investigate whether you can get yourself on a course with the manufacturer, or whether your organisation can afford to hire a training day from the manufacturer to guide you through the process with their software. Although expensive, this sort of thing can be good value in the long-run as you get so much more from the equipment if you know what it can do, and how to use it to its full.