EXPERT-SYSTEMS TO ASSIST ANALYTICAL-CHEMI STRY - TROUBLESHOOTING AND PLAUSIBILITY TESTING IN ION CHROMATOGRAPHY

An expert system for automated troubleshooting and plausibility testin g in ion chromatography is introduced. The program is able to detect s ome major problems in the chromatograms. First it evaluates the incomi ng data to get the retention time, the baseline drift and noise, the p eakshape and other criteria. Based on this information conclusions are drawn whether an analysis is formally correct or not. Even more probl ems can be solved depending on the inputs of the users. The expert sys tem is able to deal with many standard problems (523 are implemented). To evaluate the plausibility of the data the system uses known inform ation about the sample (analytes and concentrations) to calculate rang es of credible results. The troubleshooting routines lead to at least 90% correct conclusions. The plausibility check needs many information s for the inference process, it succeeds best with routine problems.