A new method to improve the reproducibility of retention time on reversed phase C-18 columns in different laboratories

A great deal of high performance liguid chromatographic (HPLC) fingerprints of complex samples which are very helpful for chromatographer have been accumulated. However, the drifting of retention values on different laboratories retarded us to use these data effectively and sufficiently. The aim of this paper is to improve the reproducibility of retention times on different C-18 columns with different HPLC systems. On the basis of the thermodynamic theory of HPLC, a new method is presented to improve the reproducibility of retention times on reversed phase C-18 columns in different laboratories. Retention values of nine solutes on two different C-18 columns under five different conditions were used to verify this method. The results show that this method is a good way to reduce the absolute error of retention times on different HPLC systems with different C-18 columns