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1.1: Introduction to Analytical Chemistry

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    493474
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    What is analytical chemistry?

    According to the American Chemical Society, analytical chemistry is defined as "the science of obtaining, processing and communicating information about the composition and structure of matter"[1] In particular, this means understanding the ways in which chemical measurements are made, and learning how to communicate about those measurement. When an analytical chemist communicates about a measurement, it is critical that both the result and the uncertainty in that result are reported together. There are no exact measurements, and there is no solutions manual in real life.

    So, this class will focus on not only the tools and techniques used to make chemical measurements, but also the tools and techniques used to quantify and communicate uncertainty. We will focus on several main measurement techniques:

    1. Titration
    2. Spectroscopy
    3. Chromatography
    4. Electrochemistry

    and we will learn some fundamental statistics that can be used with all of these techniques. Additionally, we'll combine our knowledge of the chemical measurements and the statistical analysis to consider how we design and validate new measurements.

    [1] https://www.acs.org/careers/chemical...chemistry.html


    1.1: Introduction to Analytical Chemistry is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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