Medical brain notes 35

  Introduction C hemistry   is   the   study   of   matte r ,   including   its   composition, structure,   physical   properties,   and   reactivity.   There   are   many   approaches to studying chemistry, but, for convenience, we traditionally   divide   it   into   five   fields:   organic,   inorganic,   physical, biochemical,   and   analytical.   Although   this   division   is   historical   and arbitrary,   as   witnessed   by   the   current   interest   in   interdisciplinary   areas such   as   bioanalytical   and   organometallic   chemistry,   these   five   fields remain   the   simplest   division   spanning   the   discipline   of   chemistry. Training   in   each   of ...

  What Is Analytical Chemistry? “Analytical chemistry is what analytical chemists do.”* We   begin   this   section   with   a   deceptively   simple   question.   What   is   analytical   chem- istry?   Like   all   fields   of   chemistry,   analytical   chemistry   is   too   broad   and   active   a   disci- pline   for   us   to   easily   or   completely.   Instead,   we will   try   to   say   a   little   about   what   analytical   chemistry   is,   as   well   as   a   little   about   what analytical   chemistry   is   not. Analytical   chemistry   is   often   described   as   the   area   of   chemistry   responsible   for characterizing the composit...

  The Analytical Perspective Having   noted   that   each   field   of   chemistry   brings   a   unique   perspective   to   the   study of   chemistry,   we   now   ask   a   second   deceptively   simple   question.   What   is   the   “analyt- ical   perspective”?   Many   analytical   chemists   describe   this   perspective   as   an   analytical approach   to   solving   problems. 7   Although   there   are   probably   as   many   descriptions of   the   analytical   approach   as   there   are   analytical   chemists,   it   is   convenient   for   our purposes   to   treat   it   as   a   five-step   process: ·       ...