gaaaaah

[moonwise]

On the day they gave out brains, I was last in line.

Okay, literature gradient conditions say "30% 0.1% TFA/acetonitrile to 40%."

First I leave out the TFA part. (TFA = trifluoroacetic acid)

Then I put in the TFA part, but I put the TFA in acetonitrile. Wrooooooong.

Ok, put TFA into water, like it's supposed to be. Still getting no peaks. WTF.

Then I discovered:

It's 30% WATER/TFA as the starting conditions, not 30% ACETONITRILE

DUMB DUMB DUMBASS

NO WONDER MY PEAKS ARE ROCKETING OFF THE FUCKING COLUMN

dammit.

Comments

[fadingembers.livejournal.com]

I would totally back you up in your self-assessment of 'DUHR' if I were smart enough to know what you were saying :D

>^..^

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Trust me, it's dumb dumb dumb. :)

[tntoxfox.livejournal.com]

Ooooooops...

I don't think my HPLC has forgiven me for letting its acetonitrile go dry last week. I hugged it...and everything!!!

I lurve HPLC. Sometimes. ;)

[arafel.livejournal.com]

*grins* Losing prime is a minor infraction. Recite the periodic table and your sins will be forgiven. Do you work with an Agilent? Waters instruments at least will shut down when they lose prime, and they don't pump your column dry.

[tntoxfox.livejournal.com]

We work with a Shimadzu. Decent machine, but the software for it is a pain in the butt to work with. Not intuitive at all. The machine also didn't beep when one of the solvents ran dry, so you have to keep a close eye on those.

[arafel.livejournal.com]

Eh, it turned out that the "right" way to run the gradient was as crappy-looking as the "wrong" way to run it. Now we're into method development. The joy.

And yes, I feel your pain on the "omg look how well I did" thing. Trust me, it ain't often that I'm not reminded of how not-brilliant I can be...