Statistical determination of the proper sample size in multicomponent separations

The Fourier analysis of multicomponent chromatograms is applied to chromato grams of diesel fuels. The concentration of the injected sample was varied over several orders of magnitude. The number of components, the average pea k width, as well as the retention pattern were determined for all sample co ncentrations. The lower edge of the practical sample size is limited by the baseline noise, whereas the upper limit is set by column overload. By mean s of statistical analysis, those two boundaries were isolated and a method is proposed to determine the useful sample size for the analysis of any mul ticomponent mixture. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.