hi,
having an issue where a peak of interest (which has a -OH group) is starting to tail badly after a number of runs. as all other peaks are not affected this has to be an activity issue?
I have tried inert columns, inert liners, inert gold seals but the problem will eventually arise very quickly. column is DB-5 with a guard column.
I'm curious to know whether the injection of a silylating reagent through the column would improve the situation? I understand it will react with any active hydrogens (like -OH groups). I'm sure it make more sense to add the reagent to the sample but this would involve revalidation work which is not feasible. my thinking is that there are contaminants in the sample that are interacting with the polar analyte and causing peak tailing, as the sample im afraid is only diluted with acetonitrile and probably contains alot of semi-volatile junk?
Can a silylating reagent be run through a GC column and "clean" the column of semi-volatile contaminants?
