No Peaks
GC Troubleshooting Course
6 - Unstable Baseline
7 - Carryover/Ghost Peaks
8 - Fronting Peaks
9 - Poor Peak Resolution
10 - Split Peaks
11 - Response Variability
12 - Retention Time Variability
13 - Course Summary & Test
No Peaks
If instrument is set up correctly, but you’re not seeing any peaks, then this would indicate that something fundamental is going wrong somewhere! The source of the problem can usually be found quickly, here’s our checklist of things to rule out.
The most likely place is an injection error. Problems could include:
- A blocked syringe or inlet – In which case clean or replace it.
- An empty vial – It might sound obvious but check that you have sufficient sample!
- Injecting into the wrong inlet – This is likely to be a problem in your software method or batch sequence.
Another possible cause of no peaks is the capillary column:
- A broken column – GC columns are made of fused silica and are therefore quite delicate and can easily break or snap resulting in a leak and loss of sample. Could this have happened during recent maintenance?
- Column installed into wrong inlet or detector – This is worth checking, especially if you weren’t the last person to use the equipment.
- Gas flows – Check that your gas is flowing correctly through the column.
GC columns are delicate and easily broken during maintenance or other routine operations.
And the other common source of no peaks are detector issues. Things that we come across are:
- No connections – Check detector cables and verify that the detector is turned on.
- No gas flows – It may be that the detector gas has got turned off, or that the wrong flow rates are being used.
Related Resources
