Deconvolution of Overlapping HPLC Aromatic Hydrocarbons Peaks Using Independent Component Analysis (ICA)

Chemometric methods like Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Evolving Factor Analysis (EFA) have been applied to improve peaks separation, especially in HPLC UV-DAD analysis. In this work, the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) was adopted for the separation of overlapping aromatic peaks and the simultaneous determination of the underlying spectra. The application of the method on middle petroleum fraactions showed an improved separation between the aromatic groups compared to the previously used methods. The determined by the ICA method UV spectra of the component groups can be further exploited for the compositional characterization of the aromatic fractions.