Preface
This book is intended to serve both as a generic introduction to Analytical
Chemistry and as a body of essential analytical chemical knowledge. This grassroots approach aims to convey the underlying integral teaching message of this discipline in a proper manner in order to ensure effective, consistent learning leading
to a solid analytical chemical background. As such, this textbook has been conceived as a tool of use to students undertaking Analytical Chemistry for the first
time within the framework of a wide variety of undergraduate curricula. It aims to
be a visiting card for this discipline. Because of their generic nature, the contents of
this book must obviously be completed with the topics that constitute the typical
core of other, high -quality textbooks of which this is by no means a competitor.
This is an atypical Analytical Chemistry textbook inasmuch as it provides no
systematic description of analytical techniques (gravimetries, titrimetries,
spectrometries, electro analysis) or methods - not even of ionic equilibria,
improperly deemed by some "the fundamentals of analysis". Rather, it deals
systematically with the true intrinsic fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry,
which are those that make it an independent, self-contained science and distinguish it unequivocally from other scientific and technical areas.
Few textbooks adopt such a generic approach to the subject, one that addresses topics such as analytical properties (Chapt. 2), standards and traceability
(Chapt. 3), the analytical process (Chapt. 4), qualitative (Chapt. 5) and quantitative aspects (Chapt. 6), the analytical problem (Chapt. 7) and analytical quality
(Chapter 8). These contents are intended to provide a solid foundation for subsequently acquired analytical chemical knowledge. Some of these topics are not
easy to teach on an elementary level, so they are profusely illustrated with nonacademic examples and consolidated with questions and seminars.
In a way, innovating involves leaping into the void, a risk that has consciously
been assumed by the author. However, the pedagogical innovation implicit in
this textbook has been tried and tested for six years in teaching Analytical
Chemistry as a first-year subject of the Chemistry curriculum at the University
of C6rdoba, Spain. I am deeply grateful to my partners in this venture, Professors
Manuel Silva and Angel Rios, for their comments and expertise, which are
reflected in this book in one way or another.
This novel conception is bound to meet with rejection by some Analytical
Chemistry lecturers. It certainly departs considerably from the way they have
traditionally approached first-time students of this subject. I just wish to ask
those reluctant to adopt this new approach to reflect on it and let me know anything they may think fit about it. Their comments will no doubt help me enrich
subsequent editions.
Because undergraduate curricula vary widely, the amount of time that can be
devoted to this introduction to Analytical Chemistry also differs widely. By way
This book is intended to serve both as a generic introduction to Analytical
Chemistry and as a body of essential analytical chemical knowledge. This grassroots approach aims to convey the underlying integral teaching message of this discipline in a proper manner in order to ensure effective, consistent learning leading
to a solid analytical chemical background. As such, this textbook has been conceived as a tool of use to students undertaking Analytical Chemistry for the first
time within the framework of a wide variety of undergraduate curricula. It aims to
be a visiting card for this discipline. Because of their generic nature, the contents of
this book must obviously be completed with the topics that constitute the typical
core of other, high -quality textbooks of which this is by no means a competitor.
This is an atypical Analytical Chemistry textbook inasmuch as it provides no
systematic description of analytical techniques (gravimetries, titrimetries,
spectrometries, electro analysis) or methods - not even of ionic equilibria,
improperly deemed by some "the fundamentals of analysis". Rather, it deals
systematically with the true intrinsic fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry,
which are those that make it an independent, self-contained science and distinguish it unequivocally from other scientific and technical areas.
Few textbooks adopt such a generic approach to the subject, one that addresses topics such as analytical properties (Chapt. 2), standards and traceability
(Chapt. 3), the analytical process (Chapt. 4), qualitative (Chapt. 5) and quantitative aspects (Chapt. 6), the analytical problem (Chapt. 7) and analytical quality
(Chapter 8). These contents are intended to provide a solid foundation for subsequently acquired analytical chemical knowledge. Some of these topics are not
easy to teach on an elementary level, so they are profusely illustrated with nonacademic examples and consolidated with questions and seminars.
In a way, innovating involves leaping into the void, a risk that has consciously
been assumed by the author. However, the pedagogical innovation implicit in
this textbook has been tried and tested for six years in teaching Analytical
Chemistry as a first-year subject of the Chemistry curriculum at the University
of C6rdoba, Spain. I am deeply grateful to my partners in this venture, Professors
Manuel Silva and Angel Rios, for their comments and expertise, which are
reflected in this book in one way or another.
This novel conception is bound to meet with rejection by some Analytical
Chemistry lecturers. It certainly departs considerably from the way they have
traditionally approached first-time students of this subject. I just wish to ask
those reluctant to adopt this new approach to reflect on it and let me know anything they may think fit about it. Their comments will no doubt help me enrich
subsequent editions.
Because undergraduate curricula vary widely, the amount of time that can be
devoted to this introduction to Analytical Chemistry also differs widely. By way