ANALYTICAL EDITORIAL
October 1972, Vol. 44, No. 12 ,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,," ,,,,,,,,,,n
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Editor: HERBERT A. LAITINEN
EDITORIAL HEADQUARTERS 1155 Sirteenth St N.W. Wamhington, D.C:'20036 Phone, 202-872-4600Teletype: 710-8220151 Managing Editor: Virginia E. Stewart Asoociate Editora: Josephine M. Petruzzi Alan J. Senzei A d s t a n t Editor: Andrew A. Husovsky PRODUCTION STAFF Production Manager: Bacil G d e y Art Director: Norman W. Favin Art/Production : Judy Bitting Associate Production Managers: Lero L. Corcoran Cbrrotte C. Sayre Editorial Asaiatant: Nancy J. Oddenino EDITORIALPRODUCTION OFFICE, EASTON, PA. Manager: Charles R. Bertach Assimtant Editor: Elizabeth R. R u e
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Defining Our Role DURINGAN ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY conference a few months ago, a speaker maintained in all seriousness that analytical chemistry had passed its zenith during the time of the Manhattan District project on nuclear energy. He said that tivo of the major roles of the analytical chemist were being taken by others. The first, that of operating routine analytical methods for control purposes, has largely been taken over by engineers who have mechanized and automated such methods to render the routine analyst unnecessary. The second role, that of materials characterization, he said, was being taken over by physicists who have the necessary instrumentation for making the more sophisticated types of characterization measurements necessary in today's technology. As an example was cited the electron microprobe, to answer the question of the spatial distribution rather than just average composition. In the discussion that ensued, your editor was moved to comment that the only rational basis on which analytical chemistry could be said to have passed its zenith 25 or 30 years ago, would be to define analytical chemistry in terms of its function during that time as though there had been no changes during the intervening period. To define analytical chemistry as being concerned only with the average elemental composition of matter is to relegate it by definition into a stagnant position that would not be imposed on any other branch of science. Not only is the modern analytical chemist concerned with the spatial distribution of composition, he is also concerned with many other more detailed aspects of chemical measurements. For example, the crystalline form of a compound, the oxidation state or coordination state of a metal, or the identification of geometrical isomers of compounds are all legitimate analytical questions. Likewise, the time dependence of concentration or the change of concentration of an intermediate species during the approach of a chemical system to equilibrium or steady state, are analytical questions. The direct determination of a reaction rate, not only for the purpose of analysis, but also for describing the dynamics of formation and disappearance of a given species, is an analytical question. Of course, these questions are also of concern to other scientists, just as elemental composition is. The unique concern of the analytical chemist, however, is in improving the means by which such chemical measurements are made. Other scientists are also concerned with these improvements, but in making them, they have made an analytical contribution. To say that analytical chemistry is enlarging its role is not to say that the importance of determining the average elemental composition has disappeared. It is just to say that the need for more detailed and sophisticated information about the composition of matter will ensure the necessity for a viable science of analytical chemistry as a research field for the foreseeable future.
//& ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 44, NO. 12, OCTOBER 1972
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