Chromatography Forum

hello to all,
i need help. i am almost totally ignorant of anything to do with chromatography. i seek expert guidance.
i am involved in and needing to get qualitative separations and quantitative approximations of certain beta glucan polysaccharides from complex liquids.
additionally, in some complexes, i will also need to separate out some bicyclic heptapeptides with known atomic parameters, CAS numbers, and PubChem data.
i am looking for the most efficient separation methods coupled with reasonable cost.
any literature or help in the right direction will be very valuable. i can supply more info via pm if needed.

thank you,
houdinihar

This is *not* a student-level project, especially if you have little/no experience in HPLC. Your best approach would be to hire someone with experience to set up and execute the project. If you are in academia, try to partner with another department or group who can do the chromatography. If you are in industry, find a contract lab (but expect to pay dearly for it!)

tom,
thanks for the reply. already, your answer has helped shaped my direction. i appreciate what you said. not having any practical knowledge of hplc there was no way to guage my actual requirements, only my need, hence my posting in the student section. there is a fine university nearby which might make a good ally in this endeavor.
btw, are there any beginning books you might suggest for one such as me?
thanks again,
houdinihar

This application also shouts "Dionex" at me. You could try contacting a Dionex rep and see if they have any application notes. But if you haven't got access to a dionex instrument (perhaps your local university can oblige?), it may not be helpful. Good luck!

A good introductory book is
Mike Dong's book "Modern HPLC for Practicing Scientists":
http://tinyurl.com/ModernHPLC4PracticingSci

For bigger molecules, Cunico, Gooding, & Wehr's "Basic HPLC and CE of Biomolecules:
http://tinyurl.com/BasicBiomolecules

And, there are a number of free tutorials and references in our FAQ section:
http://www.lcresources.com/wiki/index65 ... Q:MoreInfo

tom
thanks for the followup info. i have been looking more in to this as well at lcresources. some simple tutorials there as you noted.

A good introductory book is
Mike Dong's book "Modern HPLC for Practicing Scientists":

I have less than 1 year experience with HPLC, so I am a novice too. I have read this book and found it very helpful. The first 2 chapters get a little dense with theoretical formulas, but after that it is very quick reading.

If you are responsible for making this project happen and cannot hire a consultant, your best resource will be an HPLC vendor: Our lab was in a similar position, none of us had method development experience. A Waters Sales Person helped identify the instrument components, reagents and an intial method. A Waters technician installed and calibrated the system. This got us running in less than a couple weeks. Then a specialist familiar with our industry gave us ~ 8 hours of training to get us up to an "operator" level.

Good luck!

Diagnostic.Lab,
thanks for the followup and critique of the book. i will definitely be looking into this.
houdinihar