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8 Analytical Chemistry and Quality
8.1 Introduction
The word "quality" has been used systematically in the previous chapters of this
book, devoted to the fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry, to refer to the degree
of excellence of various analytical objects, systems and events. These are some of
the more meaningful examples:
• In the definition of Analytical Chemistry (Sect. 1.1), quality is an attribute of
the information produced.
• Analytical information encompasses three quality levels, viz. ideal, referential
and real (see Fig. 1.6).
• Quality as applied to information, traceability and the analytical process, and
as related to analytical properties, is one of the key words of Analytical
Chemistry (see Fig. 1.10).
• Analytical quality (viz. quality of CMPs and of results) is directly related to
analytical properties and their hierarchies (see Fig. 2.1).
• As shown in Box 3.15, standards contribute to quality of analyticallaboratories.
• The principal aim of method validation is to assure analytical quality (see
Sect. 4.6).
• Analytical properties and errors (false positives and false negatives) characterize the quality of the binary response in qualitative analysis (see Sects. 5.2.3
and 5.2.4).
• The analytical properties of a quantitative response somehow dictate its quality (Sect. 6.2).
• As shown in Sect. 7.7, the analytical problem is also related to quality.
This final chapter aims to provide an integral, comprehensive, though not exhaustive, picture of the Analytical Chemistry-quality binomial from two different points of view, namely:
(a) a basic one (most analytical chemical facets are related to quality in its
broadest sense) and
(b) an applied one (the implementation of quality systems in the analytical
laboratory).
Continuously improving analytical information in order to bring it as near
as possible to the intrinsic information latent in the object or sample considered is an essential goal of Analytical Chemistry. Tests involving expert
analytical laboratories that applied specific CMPs to identical samples in
order to determine the same analytes have exposed differences in the
results that can be taken as warnings for the absence of quality. Boxes 8.1 and
8.2 show two typical examples that more than justify the need for quality
systems and for their inclusion in the basic curriculum taught to future analytical chemists.
8 Analytical Chemistry and Quality
8.1 Introduction
The word "quality" has been used systematically in the previous chapters of this
book, devoted to the fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry, to refer to the degree
of excellence of various analytical objects, systems and events. These are some of
the more meaningful examples:
• In the definition of Analytical Chemistry (Sect. 1.1), quality is an attribute of
the information produced.
• Analytical information encompasses three quality levels, viz. ideal, referential
and real (see Fig. 1.6).
• Quality as applied to information, traceability and the analytical process, and
as related to analytical properties, is one of the key words of Analytical
Chemistry (see Fig. 1.10).
• Analytical quality (viz. quality of CMPs and of results) is directly related to
analytical properties and their hierarchies (see Fig. 2.1).
• As shown in Box 3.15, standards contribute to quality of analyticallaboratories.
• The principal aim of method validation is to assure analytical quality (see
Sect. 4.6).
• Analytical properties and errors (false positives and false negatives) characterize the quality of the binary response in qualitative analysis (see Sects. 5.2.3
and 5.2.4).
• The analytical properties of a quantitative response somehow dictate its quality (Sect. 6.2).
• As shown in Sect. 7.7, the analytical problem is also related to quality.
This final chapter aims to provide an integral, comprehensive, though not exhaustive, picture of the Analytical Chemistry-quality binomial from two different points of view, namely:
(a) a basic one (most analytical chemical facets are related to quality in its
broadest sense) and
(b) an applied one (the implementation of quality systems in the analytical
laboratory).
Continuously improving analytical information in order to bring it as near
as possible to the intrinsic information latent in the object or sample considered is an essential goal of Analytical Chemistry. Tests involving expert
analytical laboratories that applied specific CMPs to identical samples in
order to determine the same analytes have exposed differences in the
results that can be taken as warnings for the absence of quality. Boxes 8.1 and
8.2 show two typical examples that more than justify the need for quality
systems and for their inclusion in the basic curriculum taught to future analytical chemists.