Introduction What Is Analytical Chemistry

For many years, analytical chemistry relied on chemical reactions to identify and determine the components present in a sample. These types of classical methods, often called wet chanical methods, usually required that a part of the sample be taken and dissolved in a suitable solvent if necessary and the desired reaction carried out. The most important analytical fields based on this approach were volumetric and gravimetric analyses. Acid-base titrations, oxidation-reduction titrations, and gravimetric determinations, such as the determination of silver by precipitation as silver chloride, are all examples of wet chemical analyses. These types of analyses require a high degree of skill and attention to detail on the part of the analyst if accurate and precise results are to be obtained. They are also time consuming, and the demands of today s high-throughput pharmaceutical development labs, forensic labs, commercial environmental labs, and industrial quality control 

Analytical chemistry uses many specialized terms that may be new to you. The definitions of the terms, usually shown in boldface, must be learned. The units used in this text are, for the most part, the units of the Systdme International d Unitds (SI system). The SI system is used around the world by scientists and engineers. The tables inside the textbook covers give the primary units of measurement in the SI system. A comprehensive list of SI units, Sl-derived units and definitions, as well as non-SI units may be found at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) website at http //physics.nist.gov. 

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