Patent ID: 7386427

Claim:
A method to determine the best fit parameters of a broadening model to be used to correct for the effects of interdetector band broadening in a chromatographic separation containing a separation device followed by two or more detectors i (=1,n), where n is the number of detectors, comprising the steps of A. Selecting a broadening model B(α 0 , α 1 , . . . , α l , t) containing a set of adjustable parameters α j (=0, . . . , l), where l is the number of adjustable parameters; B. Injecting a reference sample of uniform composition; C. Collecting the i detector signals D i (t) as a function of time corresponding to a peak of said sample from each of said detectors of where a peak is defined as a range of time during which the sample of uniform composition elutes; D. Defining the reference signal D n (t) as that which exhibits the broadest temporal response; E. For each detector i, forming a χ i 2 model which is derived from said broadening model, and is to be minimized over said peak using said signal D n (t) as a reference against which the said detector i is to be compared; χ i 2 ⁡ ( β i , τ i , α ij ) = ∫ peak ⁢ ( D n ⁡ ( t ) - β i ⁢ ∫ - ∞ ∞ ⁢ D i ⁡ ( t - τ ) ⁢ B ⁡ ( α ij , τ - τ i ) ⁢ ⅆ τ ) 2 ⁢ ⅆ t , where said best fit parameters are β i , α ij , and τ i ; and (a) β i is the scale factor for detector i; (b) α ij characterizes the extent of the broadening for detector i and parameter j; and (c) τ i is the interdetector time delay for detector i. F. Minimizing said χ i 2 models to determine yield said best fit parameters for said detector peak.