Automatic Operations in Analytical Chemistry

Abstract

The high cost of quantitative analyses, together with the ever-increasing demand for more quantitative data both in laboratories and plants, has continued to accelerate the development of automatic methods. This review covers the two years which have elapsed since the last in this series (187, 188). Competition in electronic instruments for measuring physical properties has led to a sometimes bewildering array of choices in how best to solve a particular analytical problem. Perhaps the most significant developments during this time have been the wider use of the recently developed electronic tools such as spectrophotometers, refractometers, titrators, electronic balances, and radioactivity detectors. However, a much needed emphasis on new techniques of sampling (collecting, measuring, and treating) and of separation has also evolved.