Optimization of Detector Parameters to Improve Sensitivity Using the Alliance™ iS HPLC System With PDA Detector

Default PDA instrument method settings are frequently used for routine HPLC analysis. While these default settings are often suitable, they may need to be modified to obtain optimal separations. In this study, the USP method for organic impurities in ibuprofen tablets was used to demonstrate how optimizing detector settings produced an improvement in sensitivity. 

The Alliance iS HPLC System with PDA Detector is a newly designed PDA detector that has additional tools to improve performance, including variable slit width and resolution range to 20 nm. For this study, the impact of the following detector settings on sensitivity (defined as the USP signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio) was evaluated: data rate, filter time constant, slit width, resolution, and absorbance compensation. Using optimized detector parameters produced a 7x increase in the USP S/N ratio over that obtained using the default values. The study shows how, with minimal effort, the detector parameters can be easily optimized resulting in an improvement in sensitivity.

Benefits
- The Alliance iS HPLC System with PDA Detector allows the user to easily modify PDA settings to obtain optimal performance, including signal-to-noise
- The Alliance iS HPLC System with PDA Detector has a range of parameters, including variable slit width and wide resolution range for method optimization
- Optimization of the PDA settings produced a S/N ratio increase of 7x