Increasing the reliability of the identification by high-performance liquid chromatography by means of selective and/or sensitive detection

An approach for quantitative assessment of the reliability of identification at high-performance liquid chromatography is proposed. The quantitative assessment of identification is useful for determination of selectivity at validation of the analytical methods. Chromatograms and spectra of the analytes are presented as maps in which characteristics as retention times, detector’s signals, maxima and minima and another characteristics of spectra are used for identification. A formula for quantitative determination of the contribution of these characteristics on the reliability of identification is given. Using the more selective diode array detector than the convenient UV detector increases the reliability by several orders. A similar result was obtained when the UV detector was replaced with the more sensitive and selective fluorescence detector. Despite of the small contribution of the separation to the reliability its influence is very important for distinguishing of isomers because their spectra are identical.