R. Kilg et Hc. Smit, THE QUALITY OF QUANTITATION IN CHROMATOGRAPHY .2. OPTIMIZING THE QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS, Analytica chimica acta, 333(1-2), 1996, pp. 11-21
An information theoretical derivation of the optimal separation expres
sed in required column length of chromatographical peaks is given. The
criterion is the precision of the estimation of the peak intensities.
Fully separated peaks happened to be not optimal; a much lower resolu
tion corresponding with a small columnlength is to be preferred. Perha
ps more important is the obtained strong reduction of the analysis tim
e than gain in precision to allow very fast chromatography usable for
instance process control. The not completely resolved peaks require sp
ecial signal processing software using as much preinformation about si
gnal shape and retention time as possible.