Analytical chemistry and quality

The word “quality” has been used systematically in the previous chapters of this book, devoted to the fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry, to refer to the degree of excellence of various analytical objects, systems and events. These are some of the more meaningful examples: In the definition of Analytical Chemistry (Sect. 1.1), quality is an attribute of the information produced. Analytical information encompasses three quality levels, viz. ideal, referential and real (see Fig. 1.6). Quality as applied to information, traceability and the analytical process, and as related to analytical properties, is one of the key words of Analytical Chemistry (see Fig. 1.10). Analytical quality (viz. quality of CMPs and of results) is direct1y related to analytical properties and their hierarchies (see Fig. 2.1). As shown in Box 3.15, standards contribute to quality of analytical laboratories. The principal aim of method validation is to assure analytical quality (see Sect. 4.6). Analytical properties and errors (false positives and false negatives) characterize the quality of the binary response in qualitative analysis (see Sects. 5.2.3 and 5.2.4). The analytical properties of a quantitative response somehow dictate its quality (Sect. 6.2). As shown in Sect. 7.7, the analytical problem is also related to quality.