Application of the discrete wavelet transforms for denoising in GC analysis

The minimal detection level in gas chromatography (GC) depends strongly on the noise amplitude of a particular detector response. The reduction of the noise amplitude leads to the increased signal to noise ratio and can be achieved by using appropriate noise filters, like the Fourier transform FT), Savitzky-Golay (SG) approach or a discrete wavelet transform (DWT), in addition to the stabilization of the pneumatic, termic and electronic factors also influencing the GC response. In this paper, the DWT method has been used, and the choice of the optimal wavelet function in DWT for denoising of chromatograms has been described. This method was applied for denoising the chromatograms of various chlorofluorocarbons (T-11 and F-113, freons, chloroform, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, and carbon tetrachloride) detected in air samples in ppt concentrations. As ideal chromatograms, which should be obtained after denoising filtration, a synthetic chromatogram and the mean of sum of 40 experimental chromatograms were used. It was shown that the application of the DWT filtration causes a three-fold increase in the accuracy of the concentration measurements of the above mentioned compounds. The decrease of the noise amplitude improves the accuracy of peak areas integration, which then depends mainly on the accuracy of the determination of the concentration of the compounds in applied standards.