Chromatography Forum

hello everyone,

I am having some issue with getting good chromatogram when doing water or sodium hydroxide for my soil samples. I am looking at theobromine, but i get very poor resolution. Any sample prep suggestions on how I can isolate theobromine ? Thanks a bunch

Perhaps you could treat the soil with acid first, then neutralize it for your analysis? If the base won't get it out of there on its own, perhaps titrating those nitrogens on the molecule first will liberate it from the soil and improve its water solubility. You can then adjust the pH back to an appropriate value for the analysis. Do you have to extract it into an organic solvent for the GC analysis?