Hi ABRFers
Rod McCoy and Jim Bloom mentioned the downside of increased sensitivity: the
vulnerability to contamination.
The only way to deal with this is -- easy said but ...-- to be extremely
clean, to use fresh reagents, to prepare solvents frequently in smaller
quantities, to polish water by running it across a dedicated C18 column, to
use dedicated glassware. I also recommend to check reagents from different
manufacturers and keep a careful log of preferred batches and vendors. And
yes, degas by sonicating or sparging, keep solvent reservoirs covered.
All this is very tedious but it's the price to pay for being able to detect
at the low femtomole or attomole -- or as reported by some at the
sub-attomole -- level. Eventually we'll have to turn our labs into clean
rooms and we'll be wrapped in protective wear like the people who make
chips.
Regards: Jean-Pierre
----------------------------------------------------
Jean-Pierre Salzmann
Project Manager
LC PACKINGS (USA) INC
80 Carolina Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone 415-552-1855
Fax 415-552-1859
e-mail jps@lcpackingsusa.com
www.lcpackings.com
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