Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
substances in the environment, taking into account the potential risks of hydrolysis and metabolite products.
Also the risks involved by the analytical activities, as we have indicated before [7,8], were considered in order
to avoid waste generation and to reduce the risks for operators through the search for miniaturization [9] and
automatized methods of analysis [10] also looking for low energy sample treatment systems like the use of
microwave-assisted methodologies [11]. All the aforementioned applied efforts were incorporated in the
preliminary theoretical consideration about the so called environmentally friendly analytical methods [12] or
sustainable analytical chemistry [13]. However, during the 1990s it was not so easy to find literature
concerning the dispersed efforts for greening the analytical practices and it was recognized in a literature
survey on green spectroscopy made in the frame of a special issue devoted to this topic by the journal
Spectroscopy Letters
[14]. Really, it was necessary to wait for the tremendous development of Green Chemistry
made by the USA EPA and lead by Paul Anastas, who published a series of fundamental topics from 1994
[15-18] trying to create a general conscience on the need for a Green Chemistry. In spite of that, until 2010
there has not been any specific published topic on Green Analytical Chemistry [19].
The tremendous efforts made on greening both chemistry and analytical chemistry can be evaluated
through the consideration of topics and journals devoted to these aspects as it can be seen in Table 2.1. We
think that theoretical and practical efforts are absolutely necessary to convince the members of the chemical
societies about the need of such a revolution in our mentality and practices. On the other hand, it is also
mandatory to be able to transmit a new message to society in terms that clearly show chemistry is a fundamental
part of the solution of pollution problems and not just a part of the problem. The prize will be a new generation
of chemists with a strong ethical compromise within society and the environment.
2.3 TeachingAnalyticalChemistry
Analytical chemistry studies in the frame of chemistry degrees around the world have evolved in different
ways as a function of the studies programs and national regulations. In Spain there is a great tradition in
studying the existence of analytical chemistry departments as a specific area of knowledge in the frame of
studies in chemistry, pharmacy, biology and other new studies like bromatology and toxicology, environmental
sciences and chemical engineering.
Analytical chemistry teaching in the past in our country was closely related to inorganic analysis as it has
been also the case in France and Italy. Because of that in former times, inorganic ion systematic identification
approaches based on drop reactions, titrimetric and gravimetric methods of chemical analysis were the basis
of analytical chemistry studies.
Theis discipline approach was removed in the last 30 years and replaced by the deep consideration of
chemical equilibria. So, inorganic qualitative analysis and chemical methods of analysis based on
stoichiometric reactions were extensively studied in the laboratory courses and the basic courses of analytical
chemistry were focussed on the acid-base, complex formation, redox and precipitation equilibria developing
many graphical and mathematical treatments in order to provide a complete picture on the ion reactions in
aqueous media. So a change was produced from a descriptive approach to an essentially mathematical one
that improved the level and complexity of the analytical studies.
However, the main part of present challenges in analysis remained absent from the content of the
introductory courses, thus providing a false idea to the student on the objectives and the identity of analytical
chemistry, which remained closely related to the inorganic analysis.
At present the main part of methods developed and applied focussed on organic molecules. So condensation and
substitution reactions, which are of a main concern of organic analysis, were far from the simple scheme of the ion
reactions considered in the analytical chemistry introductory courses. Fortunately efforts to create a specific
personality of analytical chemistry in the frame of chemistry lead to the publication of totally new textbooks, like
that of Professor Miguel Valcárcel, which focussed the basic studies of analytical chemistry in the analytical
