Introduction to Sample Preparation

Overview

Sample preparation is the third phase of a trace elemental measurement, following the planning and sample collection phases. There is an extensive literature available for sample preparation and every publication dealing with the analysis of a given material will describe a sample preparation procedure. When looking at this literature, the beginner analyst may wonder why certain steps were taken and feel the temptation to eliminate steps that appear unnecessary. Other analysts may wish to add steps or modify the preparation procedure to fit existing equipment and time constraints.

This chapter will provide a foundation for the trace analyst, giving him or her the freedom to make informed decisions. Specifically, the trace analyst will discover how to construct sample preparation procedures for those analytical problems that offer no clear-cut path within the analytical literature.

Because this chapter involves so many topics and more information than would comfortably fit on a single Web page, we've decided to divide it into four parts to be released over the upcoming months.

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