Speciation analysis - studying method performance
A new book examines a range of EU-funded projects designed to establish and improve the state-of-the-art in speciation analysis in Europe. "Method Performance Studies for Speciation Analysis" presents an overview of recent studies funded by the EU's Standards, Measurements and Testing (SMT) programme and its predecessors. Speciation is one of the growing features of analytical chemistry in the 1990s. It is now widely recognised that the determination of total trace element contents, for example in environmental monitoring and toxicity studies, is no longer sufficient for the understanding of biogeochemical pathways of trace elements, which depends on specific chemical forms (e.g. different oxidation states, organometallic compounds, etc.). However quality control in speciation analysis is often far from satisfactory, which often hampers the comparison of data within and between laboratories. Given the large number of analyses performed by a wide range of laboratories in the EU, the European Commission supported a number of collaborative projects, which are described in the book. In addition to a discussion of the techniques used, their performance in application to real case studies, and possible sources of error, the book also describes the preparation of certified reference materials (CRMs) for the validation of methods used. The value of the book lies in its collection of information on the techniques in current use in speciation analysis by European experts in the field.