Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
Terms employed in
the literature
Homogenized keywords
• Benign Analytical Chemistry
• Clean methods
• Green analytical methods
• Direct analysis
• Environmentally friendly
Analytical Chemistry
• Green Analytical Chemistry
• Micro total analysis
• Sustainable chemistry
Figure 4.5
From environmental keywords to Green Analytical Chemistry. The need for homogenized keywords
in the field.
On the other hand, there is no problem in continuing to use the sustainable or environmentally friendly
terms in the body of the text, because they describe better the real world than the green one. However, as
keyword it is totally necessary to establish a clear identification of our efforts and we are convinced that the
use of green terms in titles, abstracts and as additional keywords of our papers is mandatory to do it.
4.4
A new attitude of authors faced with green parameters
As indicated in Chapter 2 concerning
Education in Green Analytical Chemistry
, the single thing which could
guarantee the success of the Green Analytical Chemistry movement is the deep change in the mentality of
people working in the development and application of analytical methods and to do it, additionally than to
spread well the green alternatives in the scientific literature, it will be necessary that authors include in their
evaluation of methods a clear identification of the side effects of their use, thus paying attention to the
amounts of reagents and energy involved in all the analytical steps, to the volumes of waste obtained in each
case and to the potential toxicity of both, employed reagents and generated wastes. We are convinced that the
inclusion of the aforementioned parameters in the list of data to be evaluated, will contribute to the replacement
of toxic reagents by innocuous ones, to the limitation of amounts of reagents employed and to the introduction
of detoxification steps after the measurement of standards and samples. All those parameters will clearly
show the economical opportunities offered by the green methods as compared with the classical ones and also
contribute to encouraging these applications and the industrial laboratories to greening their practices.
In some cases, this change in mentality could created just by adding a section in the 'Results and Discussion'
part regarding the evaluation of green parameters and in other cases, in which a new methodology is proposed,
it could be enough to just evaluate the reagents and energy consumption and the waste generated by the
different approaches in a comparative table. These simple modifications in the basic structure of the analytical
publications will contribute to create the objective conditions to a silent revolution in our practices because
data, more than arguments, are terribly convincing when you evaluate the different methods of analysis.
In such a framework, it will be clear that the direct methodologies, which are able to provide multiparametric
information about the composition and properties of untreated samples without using reagents or creating
dangerous wastes, will be imposed as the methods of choice when they are suitable. Additionally, the old
in-batch and macroanalysis practices will be identified as costly and dangerous in preference to automatized
