What is quantitation?

After the peaks have been integrated and identified, the next step in the analysis is quantitation. Quantitation uses peak area or height to determine the amount of a compound in a sample.

A quantitative analysis involves many steps which are briefly summarized as follows:

  • Analyze the sample containing an unknown amount of the compound to obtain the response due to the unknown amount.

  • Compare the response of the unknown amount to the response of the known amount to determine how much of the compound is present.

To obtain a valid comparison for the unknown sample response to that of the known sample, the data must be acquired and processed under identical conditions.