Analytical methods future trends

Future Trends. Methods of laser cooling and trapping are emerging as of the mid-1990s that have potential new analytical uses. Many of the analytical laser spectroscopies discussed herein were first employed for precise physical measurements in basic research. AppHcations to analytical chemistry occurred as secondary developments from 10 to 15 years later. 

In preceding chapters we have indicated which tools are nowadays being used routinely or currently are under development. General trends are higher sensitivity, more information, and faster and further automation. Automatic analyses are nice (sample in, report out), but interactive analysis tools are better. It is not realistic to expect the need for more analyses. Some future needs are more reliable quantitation, reference materials and simplification of data management. A particular problem in additive analysis concerns accuracy and traceability. In many cases, extractable rather than total concentration is determined. There are still many quantitative analytical methods waiting to be developed. It is here that the field will advance. Table 10.31 lists some proposed (r)evolutionary developments in polymer/additive analysis. 

There are several future trends for the development of passive sampling techniques. The first is the development of devices that can be used to monitor emerging environmental pollutants. Recently, attention has shifted from hydrophobic persistent organic pollutants to compounds with a medium-to-high polarity, for example, polar pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and personal care products.82 147148 Novel materials will need to be tested as selective receiving phases (e.g., ionic liquids, molecularly imprinted polymers, and immunoadsorbents), together with membrane materials that permit the selective diffusion of these chemicals. The sample extraction and preconcentration methods used for these devices will need to be compatible with LC-MS analytical techniques. 

In the following pages we first give brief accounts of the developments in microelectronics, computers and data processing which underpin virtually all modem analytical methods. Secondly some novel methods, which indicate the breadth of the subject and the trends towards high sample throughput and/or complexity of analysis will be described. Finally a major specific analytical problem, re-presenative of many likely to be encountered in the foreseeable future will be discussed. In the space available, selectivity and brevity is essential. Our object is to indicate trends, not to be comprehensive. 

The individual self-contained volumes will each encompass a closely related field of applications and will demonstrate those methods which have found the widest applications in the area. The emphasis is expected to be on the comparison of published and established methods which have been employed in the application area rather than the details of experimental and novel methods. The volumes will also identify future trends and the potential impact of new technologies and new separation methods. The volumes will therefore provide up-to-date critical surveys of the roles that analytical separations play now and in the future in research, development and production, across the wide range of the fine and heavy chemical industry, pharmaceuticals, health care, food production and the environment. It will not be a laboratory guide but a source book of established and potential methods based on the literature that can be consulted by the reader. 

Here, the use of amphetamines, common analytical methods used in their analysis, their analysis in various biological fluids, and the unique aspects related to forensic analysis of amphetamines are reviewed. A glimpse at the future trends in analysis of the amphetamines is also provided. 

The trend in industrial hygiene work is to identify the particular species responsible for an occupational health problem, although assessment of exposures to inorganic materials previously has most often been based on elemental analysis When a solid inorganic compound is to be identified and quantified, X-ray diffraction should be among the approaches considered This paper has outlined the use of X-ray powder diffraction as a tool for the identification and quantitation of crystalline particulates It has been shown that the substrate standard method is the preferred quantitative procedure for several reasons (1) easy adaptability to most analytes (2) fast analysis time (as compared to the internal standard procedure) and (3) accurate determination of matrix absorption effects While there are a number of reasons why a given compound may not be amenable to this technique, it is likely that the list of analytes will be added to in the future ... 

Another current trend that is well underway is the use of more specific analytical instrumentation that allows less extensive sample preparation. The development of mass spectrometric techniques, particularly tandem MS linked to a HPLC or flow injection system, has allowed the specific and sensitive analysis of simple extracts of biological samples (68,70-72). A similar HPLC with UV detection would require significantly more extensive sample preparation effort and, importantly, more method development time. Currently, the bulk of the HPLC-MS efforts have been applied to the analysis of drugs and metabolites in biological samples. Kristiansen et al. (73) have also applied flow-injection tandem mass spectrometry to measure sulfonamide antibiotics in meat and blood using a very simple ethyl acetate extraction step. This important technique will surely find many more applications in the future. 

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