Troubleshooting Everywhere! An Assortment of Topics from Pittcon 2025

The Pittsburgh Conference, more commonly known as Pittcon, is the largest conference focused on analytical chemistry in the United States. It was held in Boston during the first week of March. With multiple technical oral presentation sessions held in parallel, it can be difficult to decide exactly which talks to attend. This year was no exception, but my choices did not disappoint; I walked away from the conference with new troubleshooting knowledge related to multiple topics including oligonucleotide analysis by mass spectrometry, and analysis of anthropogenic compounds in the environment. In this installment of “LC Troubleshooting,” I touch on highlights from these talks, as well as troubleshooting advice distilled from a lifetime of work in separation science by LCGC Award winner Christopher Pohl.