Simultaneous resolution of overlapping peaks in high-performance liquid chromatography and micellar electrokinetic chromatography with diode array detection using augmented iterative target transformation factor analysis

In this paper, augmentation has been applied to data matrices, which originate from hyphenated methods that share the same mode of detection, but use different separation methods, HPLC-DAD and MEKC-DAD. A novel method, wavelength shift eigenstructure tracking (WET), has been proposed for the alignment between the wavelength scale of both detectors. WET proves to be suitable for the detection as well as correction of wavelength shift between both detectors. After correction of the wavelength scale, data obtained on both systems have been augmented and submitted to iterative target transformation factor analysis. Augmented curve resolution provides significantly better estimates of the chromatographic and electrophoretic profiles and spectra than the use of non-augmented curve resolution on HPLC and MEKC data separately. It is particularly useful when the pure fraction of a chromatographic peak is less than 0.10. Finally, the relative weight of MEKC versus HPLC in augmentation may be increased using intensity and noise normalisation. However, since noise normalisation and its accompanying decrease in signal-to-noise ratio leads to a loss of information, and, since intensity normalisation may cause a failure of the augmented curve resolution algorithm, benefits and drawbacks of normalisation should be weighed on a case-by-case basis.