54
2,1992
Analytical chemistry
What is it? Who needs it? Why teach it?
Peter T. Kissinger
West Lafayette, IN, USA
This article explores the status of analytical chem-
istry within the broader scientific arena. As a practi-
cal rather than fundamentally oriented discipline,
its scientific role is unclear. It is argued that analyti-
cal chemistry is a distinct field of endeavor, dealing
with the strategies and tactics of chemical mea-
surements. Recommendations are made for im-
proving its teaching and the role of analysts in in-
dustry and research is mentioned.
Recent issues of TrAC have carried features con-
cerned with teaching analytical chemistry [ 1,2]
and defining the field as a ‘scientific’ or ‘practical’
discipline [3]. I am not sure I can meaningfully
contribute to this debate; however, I have some
thoughts on the subject which may be helpful or
only throw petrol on the fire.
Legitimate?
Analytical chemistry is an academic discipline
which is well accepted in relatively few universities
in the USA. The field continues to have an ‘identi-
ty crisis’ in that its scientific role is unclear. To
many scholars, analytical chemistry does not de-
fine a science, but rather an activity in support of
science. I strongly agree with this point of view. In
some ways analytical chemistry is a ‘technology’
and as such the field might be better aligned with
engineering than with science. This does not, how-
ever, suggest that analytical chemists cannot carry
the label ‘scientist’ just as many engineers have
done in various disciplines.
The most successful academic analytical chem-
ists in the USA have generally also been successful
in some other activity which more properly defines
a science (e.g., biochemistry, metabolism, kinet-
ics, electrochemistry, organometallic chemistry,
gas phase ion-molecule reactions, etc.). Wearing
two hats has helped many academics obtain fund-
ing and a higher level of recognition than would be
016599361921W5.UU.
trends in analytical chemistry, vol. 11) no.
oplhli3n
possible under the classical ‘analytical’ label. In
American universities, analytical chemistry is a
convenient home for many people in diverse re-
search areas, but I believe that most other chem-
ists do not know what it means. Many chemists be-
lieve that ‘analysis’ is a large part of their experi-
mental activities and thus it is not necessary to de-
fine it as a distinct field of endeavor. I disagree
strongly with this contention.
There are a number of national and interna-
tional awards in analytical chemistry. Several No-
bel prizes have been awarded for advances in ana-
lytical chemistry, including the development of
high resolution nuclear magnetic resonance
(NMR) , scanning tunneling microscopy (STM),
immunoassay technology, polarography, and gas
chromatography among others. It is clearly an
area with an increasing stature. It is important to
recognize that these advances in analytical chem-
istry have frequently been carried out by those
who do not think of themselves as analytical chem-
ists. This contributes to the problem of a good defi-
nition.
Honor?
Some analytical chemists feel as if they ‘don’t
get no respect.’ I believe that honor in a field has
little to do with how difficult it is to learn or how
sophisticated it appears to outsiders. Analytical
chemistry is a very tough and rigorous subject.
Certainly quantum mechanics people are general-
ly ‘all thumbs’ in the lab, lawyers can’t do major
surgery, and physicians don’t necessarily make
good airline pilots. I’ve known many organic
chemists who could barely connect a recorder to a
gas chromatograph.
The importance and stature of a profession re-
lates to how close it is to the strategic mission of
the organization. Analytical chemists are impor-
tant people at many instrument firms. They play a
key supporting role in drug development and qual-
ity assurance at pharmaceutical firms. Marketing
and finance people are perhaps the most impor-
OElsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved
trends in analytical chemistry, vol. 11, no. 2, 1992
tant people at consumer products firms. Philoso-
phers (‘natural philosophers’ too) are perhaps
central figures at a university. While many indus-
trial analytical chemists express a feeling of being
‘left out’ of key corporate decisions, they are not
alone in this regard. Supporting personnel in ac-
counting and production management are also fre-
quently not involved directly in strategic business
decisions.
This kind of thing is taken too personally by
many technical people. If you enjoy your technical
work, and work to achieve stature in your profes-
sion, then don’t worry too much about the per-
iphery. On the other hand, you calt contribute to
your organization’s strategy, but to do so you must
be willing to think in broader terms than chemistry
alone. Otherwise, go to law school. In fact, many
potentially great analytical chemists have gone to
law school in the USA in the 80’s and 90’s. Thus we
must import people from Europe and the Far East
to support our pressing need in this field.
Mission?
Analytical chemistry has earned its poor stature
among many chemists because it is inherently a
subject viewed as having ‘practical objectives’
rather than ‘fundamental objectives.’ I happen to
enjoy solving problems; the more practical they
are the more excited I get. This is a field which has
been unable to define itself. Most people don’t
know what analytical chemistry encompasses (I
am not sure I do). It is common for analytical
chemists to be confused with ‘analysts’ or ‘techni-
cians’ who simply make measurements by recipe. I
believe this to be a large part of the problem. In
fact, many chemists across all disciplines are not
scientists. There is no reason to be embarrassed by
this and attempt to redefine analytical chemistry
as ‘analytical science, ’ ‘measurement science,’ ‘in-
formation flow’ or some other heady subject.
There are quite a few organic chemists who simply
make things by recipe. Pharmacists are also called
‘chemists’ in much of the world. They are no more
‘scientists’ than the analysts in a factory QC lab,
but they are still quite important in the overall
scope of things.
It is not a serious concern to me what violinists,
baseball players or quantum chemists think of ana-
lytical chemistry. If they liked it, they might have
chosen it as a career. I like the field! I view it as a
broad subject: strategies and tactics of chemical
measurements [4]. In reality, all laboratory chem-
ists do analytical chemistry. Some, however, do
55
not appreciate the imagination and the sophistica-
tion required to develop new concepts in this field.
Many analytical chemists pursue their work with
an ultimate objective of improved measurements.
A better understanding of natural phenomena
( i.e., science) is often necessary to accomplish
this. In some ways academic analytical chemistry
is a license to have fun. It is a field which provides
enormous flexibility across a broad range of chem-
istry, physics, biology, electronics and computer
science. Such an esoteric field is bound to be mis-
understood by outsiders. Whatever it is, analytical
chemistry is IMPORTANT. Attempts to elimi-
nate it as an academic discipline seem to be clearly
misdirected.
Teaching?
I agree strongly with Roland Hirsch that teach-
ing analytical chemistry on the undergraduate lev-
el leaves much to be desired [5]. The textbooks
generally reflect 1950’s thinking and the course or-
ganization does not indicate what most analytical
chemists actually do in either industrial research
or academia. The general thrust is toward ‘ana-
lysts’ at a silver mine. This is not all bad, but it
leaves out so much of the story. Many undergrad-
uates walk away from their analytical chemistry
classes with little feeling for the profession and its
great diversity. Some changes need to be made.
The complexity and variety of modern instru-
mentation has changed the character of analytical
chemistry. The days of balances, pipets, and bu-
rettes are gone. On the other hand, making quality
measurements today is far more difficult. Few
people understand their instruments. Even fewer
really know very much about how good their num-
bers are against an appropriate standard. We are
generating a lot of bad numbers these days and
giving them illegitimate significance. Politicians
are even getting ahold of our numbers and misus-
ing them.
Analytical chemistry courses should emphasize
the total picture of defining the measurement
problem, selecting appropriate methodology from
among the many choices, evaluating performance,
and interpreting results. They should also define
for students the difference between a scientific
problem and a technological (or engineering)
problem to avoid further confusion. Developing
the ‘tools of science’ should not be confused with
‘doing science’, although one depends a great deal
on the other. Instruments and methods give
science much of its vitality! A few years ago, the
56
following appeared in the New York Times [6].
Prominent American Chemists gathered [in Philadelphia]
last week in an unusual tribute to the instrument maker’s
art and to recognize the genius of Dr. Beckman. ‘Two of
Dr. Beckman’s instruments alone have changed the face of
chemistry and biology,’ said Dr. Franklin A. Long, profes-
sor emeritus of science at Cornell University. ‘Neither of
these sciences has been the same since the advent of the
Beckman pH meter and the Beckman spectrophotometer.
The debt we all owe these instruments is incalculable.’
Think of all the science that has been accom-
plished with the aid of Dr. Beckman’s instru-
ments. The impact he has had is staggering to the
imagination.
I’ve had a tremendous admiration for Prof. Carl
Djerassi over the years. While I recognize his
strengths and fame as an organic and natural prod-
ucts chemist, I also think he is one of the finest an-
alytical chemists since the Second World War. In a
recent article summarizing his life as a scientist,
novelist, art collector, and industrialist, Dr. Dje-
rassi makes the following statement [7]:
‘(E)ven though physical or analytical separation techniques
have changed the conduct of organic chemical research
more than any other development in the past three to four
decades, actual research in these fields by organic chemists
has not been accompanied by any particular approbation
among American academics.’
Here we have an organic chemist complaining
that analytical chemistry done by organic chemists
is not rewarded. The reason is that analytical
chemistry is not a science. It is a tool in support of
science. The painter’s brush is not judged so much
as the final painting. While analytical chemistry is
itself not a science, many analytical chemists (such
as Prof. Djerassi) clearly are scientists. Many
others are analysts getting the good numbers that
scientists, engineers, police departments and gov-
ernment regulators need so badly. Enjoying the
work is most important.
Fig. 1 perhaps best summarizes my views on an-
alytical chemistry as a profession. Analytical
chemistry is a three dimensional field. Each di-
mension is a worthy activity. There are ‘analysts’
who fall close to the service axis. Examples in-
clude QC/QA chemists in industry, regulatory
chemists in government laboratories, and clinical
chemists in hospitals. There are analytical chem-
ists who function as ‘engineers.’ Examples include
instrumentation development people in industry
trends inanalyticalchemistry, vol. 11, no. 2, 1992
SERVICE
t
Fig. 1. The analytical career is typically a vector sum of three
areas of activity. The richness of the field through this variety
often confuses those outside the discipline who tend to have
a rather narrow perspective.
and academic people who are gadget oriented. We
all know some laser people, mass spectromet-
rists, electrochemists and computer people who
fall close to the technology axis. They are most fas-
cinated with improving what can be done rather
than actually doing it. Finally, there are analytical
chemists with a natural science focus. These scien-
tists may be studying gas phase ion-molecule
reactions; they may be looking at the details of
electron transfer processes; they may be exploring
antibody-antigen interactions; they may be look-
ing at how a drug is transformed in vivo; or they
may be studying a photochemical reaction in the
stratosphere. Analytical chemists with this scien-
tific flavor to their research often examine entirely
new measurement schemes or use new informa-
tion about natural phenomena to optimize existing
schemes. Purists on this axis might build no instru-
ments and might not ‘run’ samples for a living.
What vector would you draw for yourself on Fig.
l?
Djerassi’s analytical career has mostly been in
the science and technology plane; Beckman’s im-
pact was due to his closeness to the technology
axis; Faraday and Nernst spent most of their time
on the natural science axis; many have provided
outstanding service, beginning with the assay of
minerals and more recently by diagnosing disease
and assuring the safety of products and the envi-
ronment .
 trends in analytical chemistry, vol. II, no. 2,1992
Acknowledgements
These arguments have been developed through
discussions with numerous people, including the
late Prof. Charles N. Reilley, and Drs. William R.
Heineman, Larry R. Faulkner, R. Graham
Cooks, Jonathon Howell, Royce W. Murray,
Craig E. Lunte, and Ira Krull, none of whom
would agree with all of the above.
References
1 WPAC, Trends Anal. Chem., 10 (1991) V-VI.
2 D.C. Coleman, Trends Anal. Chem., 10 (1991) 32-33.
3 Y. Gohshi, Trends Anal. Chem., 10 (1991) 119.
Bioluminescencekhemiluminescence
sensors
P.R. Coulet and L.J. Blum
Lyon, France
Among the new analytical tools under develop-
ment, chemical sensors appear to be very attrac-
tive for on-site analysis in industrial processes,
biomedical engineering, environmental control,
and even defence. A strong interest has recently
been shown in optical sensors, mainly those using
luminescence. Reactions which show fluores-
cence, chemiluminescence, and bioluminescence
are especially promising for the design of ultrasen-
sitive sensors.
Introduction
The efforts made to develop on-line monitoring
in areas as different as biomedical engineering, in-
dustrial processes, or environment control, under-
lines the need for new analytical tools which are
reliable and easy to handle on-site. The use of sen-
sors is an attractive alternative to conventional
procedures in which samples are sent for measure-
ments to central laboratories equipped with ex-
pensive instrumentation and the results returned
after an unavoidable delay. In industrial pro-
cesses, for example, this makes it difficult to adjust
0165-9936/92/$05.00.
57
Larry R. Faulkner, personal communication.
R.F. Hirsch, J. Chem. Educ., 64 (1987) 438.
N. Y. Times, November 10, 1987.
C. Djerassi, Today’s Chemist, 4(4) (1991) 10-18.
Dr. Peter T. Kissinger is at the Department of Chemistry, Pur-
due University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. He is also
founder and president of Bioanalytical Systems Inc., a manu-
facturer of liquid chromatographs and electroanalytical in-
struments. His primary research interest is in the metabolism
of low-molecular-weight organic compounds. Dr. Kissinger
received his Ph.D. in 7970 from the University of North Caroli-
na at Chapel Hill working with Professor Charles N. Reilley.
based
parameters within a run, and improvements must
be expected from configurations where analysers
are closely related to the reactors. This is partic-
ularly true for bioreactors for fermentation or cell
culture: there are few sensors for parameters re-
lated, for example, to specific enzyme activities or
to the metabolism or physiological state of living
cells. So far, only the measurement of tempera-
ture, pH, Po2, and Pcoz are relatively easy.
Chemical sensors and biosensors
Although no universally accepted definition of
chemical sensors exists, they are generally de-
scribed as probe-type devices which intimately as-
sociate a chemical selective layer with a physico-
chemical transducer. Literature on the subject is
abundant and advances in the field are regularly
reviewed [l]. Selectivity is enhanced in biosen-
sors, which can be considered as special types of
chemical sensors having in the sensing layer a bio-
logical element or bioreceptor with very sharp
molecular-recognition capabilities. Enzymes par-
ticularly, but also antibodies, lectins, or nucleic
acid sequences have a strong affinity for distinc-
tive target molecules. In their presence, with the
sensor operating, two sequential phenomena take
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