Spectrophotometric Determination of Trace Elements

I. INTRODUCTION

The rapid and continuous progress in trace analysis is associated with the development of several new techniques and industries, the beginnings of which date back to the years following World War II. Their demands for high purity materials are the main driving force, although the idea of microelements has been known for a long time in biological, agrotechnical, and geological studies, as well as in forensic analysis. Trace analysis is also an excellent analytical tool in the food industry and in environmental pollution and archeological research. As recognized recently, trace amounts of many metals and nonmetals are essential for normal biological processes. On the other hand, some elements are toxic if present in too high concentrations. With so many fields of interest and application, trace analysis has become now the major problem of the day in analytical chemistry.