In analytical chemistry, sample preparation refers to the ways in which a sample is treated prior to its analysis. Preparation is a very important step in most analytical techniques, because the techniques are often not responsive to the analyte in its in-situ form, or the results are distorted by interfering species. Sample preparation may involve dissolution, reaction with some chemical species, pulverizing, treatment with a chelating agent (e.g. EDTA), masking, filtering, dilution, sub-sampling or many other techniques.
Famous quotes containing the words sample and/or preparation:
“The present war having so long cut off all communication with Great-Britain, we are not able to make a fair estimate of the state of science in that country. The spirit in which she wages war is the only sample before our eyes, and that does not seem the legitimate offspring either of science or of civilization.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a man’s past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavours and the tinglings of a merited shame.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)