Quality trace analysis

The relative advantages and disadvantages ofvoltammetric and atomic absorption methodologies are listed below. It is concluded that for laboratories concerned with aquatic chemistry of metals (which includes seawater analysis), instrumentation for both AAS (including potentialities for graphite furnace AAS as well as hydride and cold vapour techniques) and voltammetry should be available. This offers a much better basis for a problem-orientated application of both methods, and provides the important potentiality to compare the data obtained by one method with that obtained in an independent manner by the other, an approach that is now common for the establishment of accuracy in high-quality trace analysis. 

From our point of view, this is exactly what commercial ionic liquid production is about. Commercial producers try to make ionic liquids in the highest quality that can be achieved at reasonable cost. For some ionic liquids they can guarantee a purity greater than 99 %, for others perhaps only 95 %. If, however, customers are offered products with stated natures and amounts of impurities, they can then decide what kind of purity grade they need, given that they do have the opportunity to purify the commercial material further themselves. Since trace analysis of impurities in ionic liquids is still a field of ongoing fundamental research, we think that anybody who really needs (or believes that they need) a purity of greater than 99.99 % should synthesize or purify the ionic liquid themselves. Moreover, they may still need to develop the methods to specify this purity. 

Ihnat M (1988c) Biological reference materials for quality control. In McKenzie HA, Smythe LE, eds. Quantitative Trace Analysis of Biological Materials, pp 331-351. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam. 

Wise SA, Schantz MM, Poster DL, Lopez de Alda MJ, and Sander LC (2000) Standard reference materials for the determination of trace organic constituents in environmental samples. In Barcelo D, ed. Sample Handling and Trace Analysis of Pollutants Techniques, Applications and Quality Assurance, pp 649-687. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Yoshinaga Y, Morita M, and Okamoto K (1997) New human hair certified reference material for methylmercury and trace elements. Fresenius J Anal Chem 357 279-283. 

Rossbach M, Ostapczuk P, Emons H (1998) Microhomogeneity of candidate reference materials Comparison of solid sampling Zeeman-AAS with INAA. Fresenius J Anal Chem 360 380-383. Rossbach M, Stoeppler M (1987) Use of CRMs as mutual calibration materials and control of synthetic multielement standards as used in INAA. J Radioanal Nud Chem Artides 113 217-223. Sargent M (1995) Development and application of a protocol for quality assurance of trace analysis. Anal Proc 32 71-76. 

LGC - VAM Publications (i) The Fitness for Purpose of Analytical Methods, A Laboratory Guide to Method Validation and Related Topics, (2) Practical Statistics for the Analytical Scientist A Bench Guide By TJ Farrant, (3) Trace Analysis A structured Approach to Obtaining Reliable Results By E Pritchard, (4) Quantifying Uncertainty in Analytical Measurement, and (5) Quality in the Analytical Chemistry Laboratory. LGC/RSC Publications, London, England. 

M. Sargent and G. MacKay, Guidelines for Archiving Quality in Trace Analysis, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge (1995). 

Trends in element analysis are multi-element (survey) analysis, lower concentration levels, micro/local element analysis and speciation (coupling with chromatography). An overview of the determination of elements in polymeric materials is available [7], Reviews on sample preparation for trace analysis are given in refs [8-10]. Quality assurance of analytical data in routine elemental analysis has been discussed [11], Organic analysis is obviously much more requested in relation to polymer/additive matrices than elemental analysis. 

Applications ICP-MS has become the technique of choice for the determination of elements in a wide range of liquid samples at concentrations in the ng L 1 to [igL-1 range. Typical applications of ICP-MS are multi-element analysis of liquids (even with high solid contents) element speciation by hyphenation to chromatographic techniques continuous on-line gas analysis multi-element trace analysis of polymers and trace analysis in high-purity materials. ICP-MS is routinely used for quality control purposes. 

Radtke-Granzer, R., Piringer, O. G., Problems in the quality evaluation of roasted coffee by quantitative trace analysis of volatile flavor components, Dtsch Lebensm Rundsch, 77, 203, 1981. (CA95 95570j)... 

Oehme, M., et al. (1993). The ultra trace analysis of polychlorinated dibenzop-dioxins and diben-zofurans in sediments from the Arctic (Barents Sea) and Northern North Sea. Methodology and quality assurance. Analytical methods and instrumentation, 1, 153-163. 

Oubina A, Ballesteros B, Bou Carrasco P, Galve R, Gascdn J, Iglesias F, Sanvicens N, Marco MP (1999) Immunoassays for environmental analysis. In Barcelo D (ed) Sample handling and trace analysis of pollutants techniques, applications and quality assurance. Elsevier, Amsterdam, p 287... 

H.Fr. Schroeder, In D. Barcelo (Ed.), Techniques and Instrumentation in Analytical Chemistry Sample Handling and Trace Analysis of Pollutants-Techniques, Applications and Quality Assurance, vol. 21, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 2000, p. 828. 

A. Crowson, R.W. Hdey and C.C. Todd, Quality assurance testing of an explosive trace analysis laboratory , J. Forensic Sci., 46 (2001) 53—56. 

Semiconductors Process gases, plasma gases, substrate analysis for contaminants Gas composition analysis Raw materials screening Trace analysis Quality control... 

Sargent, M and MacKay, G (1995), Guidelines for achieving quality in trace analysis (Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry). 

Multi-element trace analysis is an important prerequisite for the quality assurance of foodstuffs with respect to the characterization of non-essential, toxic and essential (nutrient) elements as pollutions or as mineral elements relevant to health. Contamination with heavy metals such as Cd, Pb or Hg has become a serious problem with increasing environmental (artificial) contamination e.g., due to industrial pollution. The increasing use of inorganic mass spectrometric techniques (especially of ICP-MS) in the analysis of foodstuffs for multi-element analysis of trace elements or the detection of selected elements and species at a low concentration level has resulted from advances in very sensitive and quantitative measurements of metals, metalloids and several non-metals, including their speciation. 

The Analytical Methods Committee s own compilation of official and standardised methods of analysis is widely used and respected within the analytical community. The importance of standardised formats for method documentation has been emphasised by the AMC s guidelines for achieving quality in trace analysis. They list 17 headings for inclusion in the documentation ... 

Synchrotron storage rings, for instance, are able to provide an extremely high flux of nearly monochromatic X-radiation on a small sample area. They could form the basis of XRF set-ups and enhance other microana-lytical methods to provide accurate determinations. In the future they could serve as a reference method for elemental trace analysis on the microscopical level (with the quality of the random number generator, a non-SI concept, as the prime source of error). 

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