Mc. Pietrogrande et al., ENVIRONMENTAL-ANALYSIS BY GC. ESTIMATION OF ERROR IN QUANTITATIVE-DETERMINATION FROM MULTICOMPONENT CHROMATOGRAMS, Annali di chimica, 87(11-12), 1997, pp. 753-763
A procedure is presented in order to analyze GC chromatograms of multi
component mixtures, such as environmental samples. The method makes it
possible to estimate the mean error introduced in quantitative determ
ination of a single component, due to peak overlapping present in the
complex chromatogram. The procedure uses Fourier Analysis to determine
the basic chromatographic attributes, i.e. the number of components m
and the mean peak width sigma. The Statistical Model of Overlap is th
en applied to estimate the statistical degree of overlapping present i
n the chromatogram, i.e. probability of singlets, doublets,.. multiple
ts. From such probability functions the mean quantitation error for on
e single component can be computed. The consistency of the procedure i
s verified on PCB mixtures. The method is applied to an environmental
sample: a municipal solid waste incinerator fly ash.