A new background correction method for the on-line coupling of gradient liquid chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry has been developed. It is based on the use of a point-to-point matching algorithm that compares the absorption spectra of the sample data set with those of a previously recorded reference data set in order to select an appropriate reference spectrum. The spectral range used for the point-to-point comparison is selected with minimal user-interaction, thus facilitating considerably the application of the whole method. The background correction method has been successfully tested on a chromatographic separation of four nitrophenols running acetonitrile (0.08%, v/v TFA):water (0.08%, v/v TFA) gradients with compositions ranging from 35 to 85% (v/v) acetonitrile, giving accurate results for both, baseline resolved and overlapped peaks.
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