A Polynomial Curve Fitting Method for Baseline Drift Correction in the Chromatographic Analysis of Hydrocarbons in Environmental Samples

In this paper we describe an algorithm for removing the baseline drift often observed in GC and HPLC plots of complex environmental samples which causes reduction of the analytical accuracy of peak area measurements. The proposed method determines the real baseline (i.e. baseline modeling) directly on the chromatographic plot of each analyzed sample and then substrate it to the analytical time series signals of the chromatogram, so reducing instrumental noise and then improving analytical accuracy. The proposed algorithm, based on a polynomial fitting estimation of the baseline, has been applied to the GC analysis of the hydrocarbon content in marine sediments.