Particulate matter from the sample or the system can cause havoc in the chromatogram.
John W. Dolan
Errata: Note that there was a transposition error in this and two associated articles. In the referenced table, the words “Symptom” and “Cause” have been reversed. That is, “Cause” should correlate with the vertical column at the left and “Symptom” with the contents of the table (Pressure, Tailing, etc.). These problems occur in:
V33(11) p. 848, Table 3 (Nov. 2015); V33(12) p. 896, Table 1 (Dec. 2015); V34(1) p. 22, Table 1 (Jan. 2016)
For a corrected version of this column online, see: http://www.chromatographyonline.com/detective-work-part-ii-physical-problems-column