**Analytical Chemistry Today and Tomorrow**

## Miguel Valcárcel

92 Analytical Chemistry

ed. Belmont: Thomson 2004.

[40] Skoog DA, West DM, Holler EJ, Crouch SR. Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry. 8

[41] The Merck Index, Merck Research Laboratories, New York, 1996.

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/50497

## **1. Introduction**

Dealing with Analytical Chemistry in isolation is a gross error [1]. In fact, real advances in Science and Technology —rather than redundancies with a low added value on similar topics— occur at interfaces, which are boundaries, crossroads —rather than barriers between scientific and technical disciplines mutually profiting from their particular approaches and synergistic effects. Figure 1 depicts various types of interfaces involving Analytical Chemistry.

**Figure 1.** Analytical Chemistry at various interfaces. (1) Internal and interdisciplinary interfaces in the realm of Chemistry. (2) Interfaces with norms and guides. For details, see text.

© 2012 Valcárcel, licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2012 Valcárcel, licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Analytical Chemistry should in fact be present at a variety of interfaces such as those of Figure 1.1. Two belong to the realm of Chemistry (the framework of reference), namely:

Analytical Chemistry Today and Tomorrow 95

**Figure 2.** Analytical Chemistry is a discipline of Chemistry (C) inasmuch as it is responsible for "Analysis", an essential component of Chemistry in addition to theory, synthesis and applications in

These four general definitions have been used to formulate various more conventional

"*Analytical Chemistry is a scientific discipline that develops and applies methods, instruments and strategies to obtain information on the composition and nature of matter in space and time*" (Working Party on Analytical Chemistry of the European Federation of Chemical

"*Analytical Chemistry is a metrological discipline that develops, optimizes and applies measurement processes intended to produce quality (bio)chemical information of global and partial type from natural and artificial objects and systems in order to solve analytical problems* 

The strategic significance of Analytical Chemistry arises from the fact that it is an information discipline and, as such, essential to modern society. Analytical Chemistry as a scientific discipline has its own foundations, which materialize in keywords such as information, metrology, traceability, analytical properties, analytical problems and analytical measurement processes. Also, it shares some foundations with other scientific and

To be coherent with the previous definitions, Analytical Chemistry should have the aims

technical areas such as Mathematics, Physics, Biology or Computer Science.

different fields (e.g. environmental science, agriculture, medicine).

definitions such as the following:

*derived from information needs*" [3].

Societies) [2].

**2.2. Aims and objectives** 

and objectives depicted in Figure 3.


Also, if Analytical Chemistry is to be coherent with its foundations, aims and objectives (see Section 2.2. of this chapter), it should establish two-way relationships with a variety of international written standards (norms and guides) in order to contribute to the continuous improvement of human activities (see Figure 1.2). The classical relationship between Analytical Chemistry and quality has materialized in ISO 17025:2005, which is the reference for laboratory accreditation. This norm contains technical requirements and other, management-related specifications that are shared with those in ISO 9001:2008, which is concerned with quality in general. Also, written standards dealing with knowledge management and social responsibility are highly relevant to the foundations and applications of Analytical Chemistry, even though they have rarely been considered jointly to date. In addition, Analytical Chemistry is very important for effective environmental protection, and occupational health and safety, since the (bio)chemical information it provides is crucial with a view to making correct decisions in these two complementary fields.
