Analytical methodology classification

This chapter includes sections on The Analytical Method, Sampling and Sample Treatment, Separation and Concentration, Method Classification, and Determinative Methods. The principal thrust of this chapter is a general summary of some of the more common and current analytical methodologies employed for the determination of total elemental contents in a wide variety of biological and environmental materials. Coverage here is general the reader is referred to other chapters in this book for particular details on individual elements covered there and to the many publications referred in this chapter. The chapter... 

Scientific progress is inexorably linked to the development of new methodologies. In the biological sciences, the past century has witnessed a progression from gross observation and classification to detailed studies of anatomical structure and biochemical processes at a molecular level. This shift in emphasis was made possible by the development of more sensitive and specific analytical techniques. 

Approaches that exploited the information in the whole analytical profiles or multivariate data of samples had to wait because of the lack of computing facilities and proper statistical programs that could handle multivariate data produced by modern analytical instruments. Thepast two decades have witnessed rapid growth in both computer hardware capacity and new methodologies for solving problems involving, for example, resolution of analytical profiles and quantification of mixtures. The success of multivariate classification and calibration using NIR spectroscopic data profiles is evident from the enormous number of industrial applications reported in the literature. 

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