Analyze PAHs by HPLC without Acetonitrile

Labs that are trying to cope with the acetonitrile shortage are trying to reduce solvent usage, or going to an alternate mobile phase. One way to reduce solvent usage is to minimize your column volume. This means going to a narrower column and possibly a shorter column as well. Ultra high pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC) lends itself nicely to this situation. By decreasing the particle size, resolution remains the same even with much shorter, thinner columns. But what if you do not have the high pressure pump capacity for this approach? Some analyses can be converted from acetonitrile to methanol. For example polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can be analyzed using methanol using conventional LC pumps. It is important to note that when analyzing PAHs in methanol there is an elution order change between dibenzo(a,h)anthracene and benzo(ghi)perylene. Check out the example chromatogram for run conditions to start analyzing PAHs in methanol.