A quantitative theory of the statistical degree of peak overlapping in chromatography

A quantitative theory of the statistical degree of peak overlapping in multicomponent chromatograms-able to take into account both the single-component (SC) peak amplitude and retention patterns-has been developed solely on the basis of the independence of these two patterns. Several solutions have been derived for the statistical attributes of peak amplitude distribution as a function of the SC amplitude distribution. Specific model cases have been investigated for both retention and SC amplitude patterns. The entropy functions of both the SC and peak amplitude distributions are investigated and their differences are related to separation parameters. The key role of the exponential distribution as "limit" distribution for the peak amplitude distribution in the SC overlapping process is single out. In parallel to the theoretical approach, a simulation has been set up to examine its applicability to cases with a limited number of SCs. The SC amplitude distribution can be obtained either by using the chi(2) test or by using observable peak amplitude dispersion in the chromatogram, evaluated at different resolutions.