Description
This textbook presents an explanatory and exploratory review of the basic concepts behind the methodologies most frequently encountered in the qualitative, quantitative and structural chemical analysis employed in sectors as diverse as the chemical, pharmaceutical, food and agricultural industries as well as those areas of the environment subjected to stringent controls.
The techniques under review have been classed into one of the following three categories: Separative Methods, Spectral Methods and Other Methods, each of which is the object of an investigative study of the fundamental ideas, their extension, development and application to the corresponding principal, instrumental techniques. Each chapter is illustrated by photographs, numerous diagrams and schemes of chemical reactions or technical principles many of which have been inspired by real instruments and documents obtained from the constructors.
However, in order that the book be contained within a reasonable volume, those methods rarely used, or currently in regression are not discussed. Written and presented as comprehensively as possible, the text addresses a broad spectrum of techniques relevant to a wide range of subjects in chemistry, physics and applied biology and will prove appropriate for students of pre-university, undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Specialist technicians in university support, research and industrial training services will equally find this book useful. The current needs of certain professional sectors in chemical analysis, some of which may appear to have been neglected, linked with the increasing choice of techniques and instruments available, equally justify this compendium of information which updates and unifies several previously available texts.
Though aimed at an otherwise broad readership, this book has been principally designed to engage the interest of students of chemical analysis and to harness their appreciation of the subject as a particular tool employed in a great many experimental sciences and a variety of associated domains.
The authors have included reminders of fundamental principles and have taken account of the evolution of knowledge and the developments in approaches to physical and mathematical phenomena. The text contains only a minimum of theory in order not to lose the attention of the broader readership whose interest is preferential for the technical content. Those readers so wishing may undertake the reading of the more specialised oeuvres without major difficulty, having acquired from this book a suitable introduction to both the current methods and practical aspects.
The content also reflects the profound changes in analytical techniques currently employed in laboratories. The inherent changes resulting from the growth in demand, the now quite necessary volume of data to be treated, from computerisation and the new requirements most notably in trace analysis.
Comprising a discussion of more than twenty methods, which bearing in mind the large number of applications for each capable of being the subject of a lengthy review, along with the addition of individual exercises, (problems and solutions) and the whole delivered in less than 580 pages, the authors have responded to a considerable challenge. They have preferred a format limited to the presentation of the tools themselves rather than to descriptions of all that their use permits them to do. The choice of applications has therefore been simplified to those which express an illustrative value.
The origin of this book has been the coursework, accumulated over a number of years, which has been presented to the students of the Institute of Technology at the University of Le Mans, France. Colleagues and friends have given graciously of their time for both the re-reading of the text and for critical suggestions. This version of Chemical Analysis is the 2nd International Edition and has been updated and completed with respect to its predecessor. The fifth edition of this book has equally been translated into Spanish. The title is Anàlisis Quimico. Methodos y Técnicas Instrumentales Modernas, McGraw-Hill Interamerica de Espana, S.A.U.