[...]... the technicians performing the analyses An analytical laboratory technician is a person with a special mind-set and special skills He or she must be a thinking person—a person who pays close attention to detail and never waivers in his or her pursuit of high-quality data and results, even in simple things performed in the laboratory We say that he or she possesses good analytical technique or good analytical. .. operating procedures (SOPs)), and the laboratory protocols, which are formal Copyright © 2003 CRC Press, LLC L1519_Frame_C01.fm Page 6 Monday, November 3, 2003 11:27 AM 6 Analytical Chemistry for Technicians WORKPLACE SCENE 1.2 S ACHEM Inc., located in Cleburne, Texas, is a producer of high-purity bulk chemicals for companies that have high-purity requirements in their chemical processing Because the products... system under scrutiny We cannot, for example, bring all the soil Copyright © 2003 CRC Press, LLC L1519_Frame_C01.fm Page 4 Monday, November 3, 2003 11:27 AM 4 Analytical Chemistry for Technicians found in a garden into the laboratory to determine the phosphate content We therefore collect a representative portion of the bulk system and bring this portion into the laboratory for analysis Hence, a portion... reputations in the country for turning out high-quality lawyers And this reputation is not lost on Professor Kingsfield as he makes it very clear from the beginning that his class is a no-nonsense class and then goes on to demand accuracy and fine detail There is a very good analogy here to learning analytical chemistry skills and technique The analytical laboratory is no place for mush heads The development... (0.00003) 2 (4 - 1) = 1.14 ¥ 1 0-4 = 1.1 ¥ 1 0-4 Finally, to get the relative parts per thousand standard deviation: RSD = -4 s ¥ 1000 = 1.14 ¥ 10 ¥ 1000 = 1.2 0.09372 m 1.7.3 Normal Distribution For an infinite data set (in which the symbols m and s as defined in Section 1.7.2 apply), a plot of frequency of occurrence vs the measurement value yields a smooth bell-shaped curve It is referred to as bell-shaped... Page 10 Monday, November 3, 2003 11:27 AM 10 Analytical Chemistry for Technicians Indeterminate errors, also called random errors, on the other hand, are errors that are not specifically identified and are therefore impossible to avoid Since the errors cannot be specifically identified, results arising from such errors cannot be immediately rejected or compensated for as in the case of determinate errors Rather,... site, or unless special permission is granted by the supervisor Copyright © 2003 CRC Press, LLC L1519_Frame_C01.fm Page 8 Monday, November 3, 2003 11:27 AM 8 Analytical Chemistry for Technicians E The following notebook format should be maintained for each project undertaken: 1) title and date, 2) purpose or objective statement, 3) data entries, 4) results, and 5) conclusions Each of these are explained... and analyte matrix are and what methods have been chosen for the analysis In this section, we present a general organizational framework for these parts; in later chapters we will proceed to build upon this framework for each major method of analysis to be encountered Let us call this framework the analytical strategy There are five parts to the analytical strategy: 1) obtain the sample, 2) prepare the... debuted in 1973 It is the story a student’s pursuit of a law degree at a high-profile Ivy League university The movie stars John Hausman as a distinguished and intimidating law professor with a reputation for ruthlessness in the classroom and for striking horrific fear in the minds of students because of his demands for hard work and for accuracy and fine detail in oral responses to classroom questions The... November 3, 2003 11:27 AM 2 Analytical Chemistry for Technicians CHARACTERIZING A MATERIAL A combination of the qualitative and quantitative analysis of a material or matrix is sometimes called characterizing the material A total analysis such as this might involve a complete reporting of the properties of a material as well as the identity and quantity of component substances For example, a company that . Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kenkel, John. Analytical chemistry for technicians / by John V. Kenkel. — 3rd ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 1-5 667 0-5 1 9-3 (alk. paper) 1. Chemistry, Analytic. 1. Title. QD75.22. Number 1-5 667 0-5 1 9-3 Library of Congress Card Number 2002029654 Printed in the United States of America 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 Printed on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication. alt="" Analytical Chemistry for Technicians Third Edition by John Kenkel L1519_Frame_FM Page 3 Monday, November 3, 2003 11:26 AM Copyright © 2003 CRC Press, LLC This book contains information