Today, Neelam and I received an introduction to the instruments that we are going to be working with over the month: the GCMS and the HPLC.
Unfortunately, from past research, the machines are a little clogged up with residual fatty acids. The first thing that needs to be done over interim is get rid of those fatty acids. We prepared a 2:1 solution of chloroform to methanol, respectively. We then ran samples of this solution in both machines.
In the GCMS, after the first run, there were still peaks indicating the presence of fatty acids. To hopefully fix this problem, we set up a series of 21 measurements to run overnight where the machine will keep taking more of the chloroform and methanol solution to clear it out.
In the HPLC, after the first run, the machine seemed to be cleared out. The spectrum that resulted after our run showed a peak, but its absorbency was only 5 MAU, where a peak for fatty acids or other compounds would be expected to be in the hundreds. We can basically assume this very small peak is zero and the machine is ready for other samples.
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