ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
EDIT0RIAL
September 1957, Vol. 29, No. 9 APPLIED JOURNALS, ACS Director o f Publications, C. 6. Larrabee Editoriol Director, Walter J. Murphy Executive Editor, James
M. Crowe
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Can Analytical Instrumentation Be Simple? F -cientibti of pa-t decade< e.tahliqhrd many h a w priiicipleIVOT z
through re-earch coiiducted IT ith simple and relatively (.rude iiirtruiiieiitatioii Faraday’. work with electricity, Edi-oii’- n-orh 011 the iiicaiide.cei1 t light, and Fraiikliri and hjr kite are well-known wainplet Today the general practice in research is t o think in terms of c.omplex arid expensir-e in-trunients T h t qiie\tioii aribes a. to n hether n-e have reached the stage TI here theic. 1. little likelihood of developiiig -1mple aiid inexpeiisive apparatu3 for 11-c i n rp-earch In the field of aiialytical reqearch. n-e feel that this is iiot the m - e In -upport of thii idea n-e cite ~ L hN example- a. paper chromatography. spot te.t-. 1011 exchange, and gay chromatography Ion exchaiige. for example, permit. relatiwly rapid separation of rare earth., a procedure vhich could not be handled iucceiifully by other technique. The atoniic re,earch program n ould have been 4owed don-ii greatly, if iiot completelj stopped. n-ithout thi- technique
Gay chromatography. although becoming more complex a- a result of incorporation of recording attachment- aiid adaptation to automatic operation.. 1- ha-ically simple aiid inexpeii-ive LIany rc>earrh ~ rork, era have made their own gaq chromatograph. This re5earc.h tool repre-elit. a completely iiew approach to a knotty analytical problem It 81-0 extend- the 11-e of infrared in-trunientation The applicdatioii of paper chromatography t o drug reiearch I- aiiother example of a Yiniple and yet effective aiialytical technique Drug- and mo-t othei iiatural product- are complex and the de-ired coii>titueiits are ofteii pre-ent i n inial1 amowit> Through use of this ponerful tool, product- may he beparated and characterized The hnowledge gaiiied aids 111 dm clopiiig commercial method- of qeparat 1011 aiid preparation Spot te-tiiig i- aiiothei -imple technique u ~ e deffectir ely by aiia1y.tFor maniple, it offerq an inexpeiiqive and effective n a y to teach qualitative a n a l p i - While iiot -0 efficient a i eniiwon spectrographic. method-. recent re-earvh 1- making it more -pecihc I n nieiitioniiig theqe iiniple de\ ice.. it I- not our interitioii to indicate that the ticiid t oirard cmiiplex and expen-ir e initrumentation 1- not good aiid iierez-ary Without the u-e of theqe ponerful tool., the ailaly-t TI oiild he unable t o 4ioulder hi. ever-increasing re-poiiiibilitiei Froin a co.t b1 aiidpoiiit. many of the-e expeiiiir e initruinelit- :ire cornparati~-elycheap, when one con.idei c the qa~wig-111 time and iiioncy that thej repreieiit Our priiicipal rea-on for briiigiiig up thi. zubject is that analy-t\ too ofteii teiid to think in term- of complex bolutions t o all arialytical problem< In yome (’ases a simple and more direct approach might y~eldthe solutioii This type of approach may yield a new analytical miiwpt, which may prove as useful as gas chromatography.
VOL. 29, NO. 9 , SEPTEMBER 1957
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