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the unit of slope in calibration curve

Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 10:54 am
by mtalebi
calibration curve is constructed by plotting area of each peak vs corresponding concentration. I'd like to know what would be the unit of slope. Is mAbs*s/ugml-1 correct?

Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2008 7:24 pm
by tom jupille
More generally, it is the ratio of the y-axis units to the x-axis units.

Peak area (y-axis) is most generally voltage X time, and so could be
millivolt-sec or
microvolt-sec (or any other combination of voltage and time units).

If the data system has done an intermediate calculation to absorbance, then the units would be
AU-sec or
mAU-sec.

Concentration (x-axis) could be expressed as mass/volume and so could be
mg/mL, or
g/L, (or any other combination of mass and volume units).
It could also be expressed in molar terms, in which case the units would be moles/volume.

Just to complicate life, the x-axis could also be expressed as mass-on-column, in which case the units would simply be mass. :?

So, the response factor (slope) could be mAU-sec-mL/μg (which is equivalent to what you wrote), or it could be:
μV-sec/μg ,or
mAU-sec-mL/mol , or . . .

It all depends on how your data system and inputs are set up.