Analytical Chemistry
What is Analytical Chemistry?
Analytical chemistry is the branch of chemistry that uses different instruments and methods for separating and analyzing various substances. It can be used widely in medicine, science, and engineering for the separation, identification, and quantification of samples. Modern analytical chemistry is based on instrumental analysis and analytical chemists focus on a single type of instrument for large-scale analysis. qualitative analysis gives the idea of chemical substances whereas quantitative analysis measures the relative quantities of substances in numerical value.
Analytical measurements are applied to solve real problems in a wide area of science such as biology, biochemistry, medicine, geology, environmental sciences, agricultural science, material science, etc.
Interdisciplinary Nature of Analytical Chemistry
The interdisciplinary nature of analytical chemistry promotes it to be an essential tool or part of all kinds of science laboratories. Scientific analysis cannot be completed without the use or help of analytical chemistry.
- Analytical chemistry has huge applications in the field of agriculture. It can be used to determine the nature of soil such as soil pH and availability of different nutrients that are needed for plant growth. Fertilizers are also analyzed by various analytical tools before being administered to the soil.
- The food items and many other consumer products such as cosmetics and medicines are analyzed by various analytical tools or techniques. We used to analyze such daily items by gravimetric and volumetric methods such as complexometric titrations, acid-base titrations, chromatographic methods, spectroscopic techniques, etc.
- Medical science also depends on analytical chemistry methods or techniques. Analytical chemistry is not only used for the composition of medicines but also they can be used to examine different pathological samples such as blood, serum, urine, etc.
- It is an indispensable branch of metallurgy because analysis of ores, extraction of metal ions, and their quality checking can be performed by various analytical chemistry techniques.
- Analytical chemistry tools or techniques are also used widely in forensic science to prove various criminal acts.
Analytical methods
The most important step of any analysis in analytical chemistry is the choice of analytical methods or techniques. Therefore, the analytical methods are selected depending on the number and nature of samples, desired accuracy, etc. The analytical method mainly classified into three main types,
- Classical method
- Instrumental method
- Non-destructive method
Classical Method
The classical method is the simplest and cheapest method or technique where required chemicals and instruments are available in any chemical laboratory. Titrimetry and gravimetry are two classical methods for the analysis of samples.
Instrumental Method
The instrumental method is more expensive, easy, and faster than the classical method. The instruments used in instrumental methods are very sophisticated, expensive, and sensitive for any analysis. Colorimetry, potentiometry, spectrophotometry, voltammetry, and chromatography are common examples of instrumental methods. Such instruments are capable of determining very low concentrations (trace and ultra-trace quantity) of a chemical substance. The common instruments used widely for analysis in science laboratories may include,
- High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)
- Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC)
- Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC)
- Mass Spectrometry (MS)
- Polarimetry
- Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (AES)
- Gas Chromatography (GC)
- Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC)
- Thin Layer Chromatography (TlC)
- Column Chromatography (CC)
- Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS)
- Paper Chromatography
- Electrophoresis
- Ion Exchange Chromatography
- Capillary Electrophoresis
Non-Destructive Method
A non-destructive method of analysis is very costly and the speed of analysis depends on the selected method and samples. Such type of method gives the result with moderate to high accuracy. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy is an example of non non-distractive method of analysis in analytical chemistry.
References
Analytical Chemistry — Priyamstudycentre.com
Analytical chemistry — Wikipedia
