Empower Tip: Review Window and the Processing Method

In this tip we are going to learn why smoothing the chromatogram can be helpful (Part 7). If the baseline is noisy you can use a small amount of smoothing to improve the baseline and the signal-to-noise ratio. Please note: Be careful, smoothing algorithms smooths all data points, not just baseline points. If you apply too high of a smoothing factor you can smooth away your peaks.

STEP 1 We start without any smoothing and see the peak of interest has a signal-to-noise ratio of 29:1.

There is more information if you go to the Results window within Review. We see the height, signal-to-noise ratio, and the peak-to-peak noise which is 33659.

Now we apply a small amount of smoothing using the Smoothing/Offset tab in the Processing Method.

The signal-to-noise ratio for our peak of interest is now 42:1.

Returning to the Results window, we see a slight reduction in peak height and a significant reduction in the peak-to-peak noise to 22715.

It’s that easy!

Here’s a Question: In Tip 47, we covered deriving a channel and applying a smoothing factor to the Derived Channel. Is there an advantage to smoothing via the Processing Method or via a Derived Channel? Stay tuned in, I will provide the answer in next week’s tip.