Castro M.D., de; García J.L.L. Acceleration and automation of solid sample treatment

Amsterdam: Elsevier. – 2002. – 547 p. (Technical and instrumentation in analytical chemistry 24) Writing a book is always an audacious act, but writing a book such as this one on sampling and sample pretreatment is even more than that: it is a real challenge. The book encompasse the entire field of analytical chemistry and oozes a profound knowledge of the concepts involved. Rather than a comprehensive discussion of available choices for expediting or automating sample pretreatment, this book provides a description of the most widely favoured choices at present and those with a high potential which, however, remains largely unexplored. Its ten chapters revolve around this criterion. The first chapter introduces both general aspects of sample preparation and the main problems encountered in automating sample treatments. The second provides a brief discussion of the underexploited potential of freeze-drying for delivering samples in forms that facilitate their subsequent analysis. Chapter 3 is devoted to a kind of energy that has also received inadequate attention from analysts: ultrasounds. More recent alternatives such as solid-phase microextraction and analytical pervaporation with which virtually the whole research group headed by the authors is acquainted; all are dealt with in Chapter four. The growing use of microwaves in both batch and continuous systems is the subject matter of Chapter five. The controversial, sparse applications of high-pressure, high-temperature solvent extraction, a widely used technique of a high potential, are systematically discussed in Chapter six. Chapter 7 describes the rapid expansion of supercritical fluid extraction but also how its scope has been restricted by differences in the behaviour of analytes naturally occurring in samples and those added to them for the purpose of analysis. Chapters 8 and 9 deal with various atomic techniques in which the authors are no experts, so any omissions or overpraising are totally unintentional.Finally, Chapter 10 focuses on robotic treatment, the only currently available choice for completely automated solid sampling by virtue of its ability to have samples weighed without human intervention.
Contest
Forward by Freddy AdamsIntroduction to solid sample pretreatment
Analytical Freeze-drying
Analytical uses of ultrasounds
Solid sample treatments involving the removal of volatile species
Microwave-assisted solid sample treatment
High-pressure, high-temperature solvent extraction
Analytical supercritical fluid extraction
Devices for solid sample treatment prior to introduction into atomic srectrometers: electrothermal devices and glow-discharge sources
Laser-assisted solid sampling
Robotic solid pretreatment