ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of different methods to characterize stationary phases and provides different chemometric techniques that are used to analyze the chemical data obtained from the different characterization methods. It presents a number of techniques commonly applied to chromatographic system or column characterization. The chapter provides an overview of data analysis, other chemometric techniques together with examples of studies that made use of them. Stationary phases can also be compared and ranked using chromatographic test results. In general, the signals in chromatography may vary from one analysis to another. Data pretreatment procedures are often employed to correct for these nonchemical variations in chromatographic data. Correlation coefficient matrices for Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), for instance, can be transformed into color maps that represent the degree of correlation or the distance between the retention profiles or chromatographic parameters by a color. The sequence of the systems in the color map may be varied to reflect different aspects of the data.
