Novel Algorithm to Accurately Quantify Overlapped Chromatographic Peaks in Real Time

A novel algorithm, mean-area (MA) method, was proposed to accurately quantify the overlapped chromatographic peaks in real-time.In the new algorithm, first, the two overlapped structural peaks were modified;second, the area of each single-peak was calculated in terms of the ratio of the total area of each peak and overlapped area of the chromatographic peaks; and finally, the realistic single peak area was determined to be the averaged area of a single peak.The test results show that the proposed MA algorithm outperforms the conventional ones, including the perpendicular drop, intersection of the vertical line and proportional distribution methods, because of a higher precision, simpler and much faster calculation.We suggest that the MA algorithm may be feasible for quantification of overlapped chromatographic peaks in real time on line.