A practical guide to nano-LC troubleshooting

Capillary LC is one of the most powerful analytical tools available for separation scientists. Its unique analytical properties are associated with numerous technical issues that may cause operation of such systems to be somehow troublesome. Because of that, a good experience in capillary LC troubleshooting is required to keep the system in shape and, in effect, to obtain reliable results. In this paper, we summarize the most important issues of the capillary systems, including void and dead volumes, leakages, sample injection, and a multidimensional LC approach. The aim of this paper was to provide practical advise on system diagnosis, and to present solutions to problems discussed. Also, several exemplary nano-LC separations are included to demonstrate some typical problems encountered in our daily work.