Baseline Noise and Measurement Uncertainty in Liquid Chromatography

The stochastic properties of baseline noise in HPLC systems with a UV photo-diode array, photo-multiplier and γ-ray detector were examined by dividing the noise into auto-correlated random process (Markov process) and an independent process (white noise). The present work focused on the effect of the stochastic noise properties on a theoretical estimation of the standard deviation (SD) of area measurements in instrumental analyses. An estimation theory, called FUMI theory (Function of Mutual Information), was taken as an example. A computer simulation of noise was also used. It was shown that the reliability (confidence intervals) of theoretical SD estimates mainly depends on the following factors: the ratio of the white noise and Markov process occurring in the baselines; the number of data points used for the estimation; the width of a target peak for which the SD is estimated.