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Precision in differential field‐flow fractionation: A chemometric study
Author(s) -
Bregola Letizia,
Contado Catia,
Martin Michel,
Pasti Luisa,
Dondi Francesco
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of separation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.72
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1615-9314
pISSN - 1615-9306
DOI - 10.1002/jssc.200700200
Subject(s) - analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , polystyrene , chromatography , calibration , fractionation , field flow fractionation , detection limit , adsorption , biological system , mathematics , statistics , polymer , organic chemistry , biology
Abstract In the present paper, the capabilities of differential field‐flow fractionation, i. e ., the determination of an incremental quantity of a colloidal species, e. g ., an uptake adsorbed mass, determined by the joint use of two independent FFF measurements, over a species and the same modified species respectively, are considered. The different error types, those related to the retention time determinations and those coming from the operating parameter fluctuations were considered. The different components were computed with reference to SdFFF determinations of bare polystyrene (PS) submicronic particles and the same PS particles covered by IgG. Comparison was made between theoretically computed precision and experiments. The error coming from the experimental measurement of retention times was identified to be the main source of errors. Accordingly, it was possible to make explicit the detection limits and the confidence intervals of the adsorbed mass uptake, as a function of experimental quantities such as the retention ratio, the detector calibration ratio, the injected quantity, the baseline noise, and the void time relative error. An experimentally determined and theoretically foreseen dependence of both the experimental detection and confidence limits (∼ ± 10 –17 g) on the square root of the injected concentration, for constant injected volume, was found.