Flow Analysis with Spectrophotometric and Luminometric Detection

With the ever increasing number of samples to be assayed in agronomical laboratories and servicing stations, fertilizer and food industries, sugar factories, water treatment plants, biomedical laboratories, drug quality control, and environmental research, the interest for automated chemical analysis has been increasing. In this context, flow analysis is very attractive, as they the flow-based procedures are characterized by enhanced analytical figures of merit. Moreover, the flow analysers do not usually require sophisticated and expensive instrumentation, are amenable to full automation and to miniaturization, and are well suited for in situ analyses. The tendency to carry out traditional methods of analysis in the flow analyser has becoming more pronounced, especially in relation to large-scale routine analyses. The technology of solution handling has become more and more improved, leading to enhanced strategies for chemical assays. Consequently, different modalities of flow analysis (e.g. SFA, FIA, SIA) have been conceived, developed and applied to solve real problems. Most of the flow-based analytical procedures presently in use, however, do not exploit the full potential of flow analysis. The main object of the book is then to provide a scientific basis and to familiarise a wide community of researchers, students, technicians, etc with the uses of flow analysis. Emphasis is given to spectrophotometric and luminometric detection, in relation to agronomical, geological, industrial, pharmaceutical and environmental applications. The book includes historical and theoretical aspects, recent achievements in instrumentation, guidelines for methodology implementation, and applications. It serves also as an applications-oriented text book.

Alan Townshend holds B.Sc., Ph.D.and D.Sc degrees from the University of Birmingham, where he lectured in analytical chemistry from 1964 to 1980. He moved to the University of Hull in 1980, where he introduced both analytical chemistry and toxicology as degree subjects. He became Professor of Analytical Chemistry in 1984 and later held the G. F. Grant Chair of Chemistry and served as Dean. He became Director of the institute for Chemistry in Industry in c.2000 and retired from the University in 2004. He has published five books and edited numerous others. He has also published more than 300 scientific papers, his main interests initially being flame spectroscopy and, from about 1978 onwards, analytical applications of chemiluminescence and of immobilised reagents (especially enzymes), and flow injection analysis.

Professor Townshend was a senior editor of Analytica Chimica Acta (Elsevier) until 2006 and of the Dictionary of Analytical Reagents (Chapman and Hall, 1993). He has been an Editor of all three editions of the Encyclopedia of Analytical Science. He was President of the Analytical Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in 1996-98 and has served on several of its committees. He was an active member of the Analytical Chemistry Division of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry for many years. He also was a member of the Council of the Analytical Chemistry Division of the Federation of European Chemical Societies for four years. His interests in forensic science and toxicology led to appointments to bodies governing the competence of forensic scientists and the verification of anti-doping tests in horse racing. He also served on the Chemistry panels of the Higher Education Council’s Research Assessment and Teaching Quality exercises. After retirement, Emeritus Professor Townshend successfully completed a part-time BA course in Archaeology (2006 – 13) at the University of Hull. He is now involved in genealogy with help from the University of the Third Age (U3A) and also organises wine appreciation meetings for the local U3A branch.

Paul Worsfold is Professor of Analytical Chemistry in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Plymouth. He obtained his BSc at Loughborough University of Technology in 1976 and his PhD in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Toronto in 1980. This was followed by positions at the Technical University of Denmark, Sheffield City Polytechnic and the University of Hull. He was awarded a DSc in 1998, was President of the RSC Analytical Division (2004-06), a Governor of IGER (BBSRC research institute; 2000-06), chair of the Division of Analytical Chemistry of EuCheMS (2011-2016) and Editor of the journal Analytica Chimica Acta (1990-2018). He has received the Royal Society of Chemistry SAC Silver Medal, the Society of Chemical Industry H.E. Armstrong Endowed Lectureship, the C.B. Huggins Endowed Lectureship from Acadia University, Canada, the Royal Society of Chemistry Theophilus Redwood Endowed Lectureship and the Japanese Association for Flow Injection Analysis Honour Award. Professor Worsfold has more than 370 publications including nearly 250 original research papers and supervised 61 PhD completions. His research interests are in the broad areas of Analytical Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry. Specific themes include flow injection analysis (FIA), techniques for the determination of phosphorus and trace metal species in natural waters and the design and deployment of instrumentation for studying environmental processes and biogeochemical cycles.