The role of speciation in analytical chemistry

The growing awareness of the strong dependence of the toxicity of heavy metals upon their chemical forms has led to an increasing interest in the qualitative and quantitative determination of specific metal species. Speciation has therefore become an important topic of present-day analytical research. This article describes the main types and areas of application of speciation analysis, and the use of sequential extraction in speciation studies. Brief characteristics of the basic types of speciation analysis, examples of their applications, and the usage of the various analytical techniques are also included. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.