Graphical Visualization Approach for Two-Dimensional Liquid Chromatography with Parallel Column Arrays

Two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC) is one
of the highest-resolution
techniques available to chromatographers for the separation of analytes
in complex mixtures. However, data analysis and data visualization
remain challenging, especially for home-built systems that do not
utilize commercial software packages. Even these packages are not
capable of effectively displaying data generated from systems where
multiple columns are used for the second-dimension separation. Here,
an open-source software package with a graphical user interface used
to plot and characterize 2D-LC data is described. In addition to plotting
imported data, a 2D-LC simulator is included to generate both 1D and
2D chromatograms. The HSV (hue, saturation, value) color wheel is
used to combine multiple 2D-LC contour plots into a single graphic,
creating a new visualization strategy for 2D-LC systems in which multiple
columns are used sequentially or in parallel column arrays in the
second dimension. Use of the package for both experimental and random
simulated data is presented as a demonstration of its capabilities.