Introduction to organic analytical chemistry

Over the last thirty years, organic analytical chemistry has undergone rapid change. Separation techniques, particularly chromatography, and spectral methods and their coupling, are rapidly leading to the identification, structure determination and assay of organic species, even when dispersed in complex mixtures. Their development and power of resolution tend to make the other branches of organic analysis - elemental and functional analysis - seem secondary, although their development is undoubtedly less spectacular but equally fruitful in new directions. The aim of this introduction is to define the new directions of organic analysis in the light of this evolution, to clarify their role and thus to justify all the articles in this section and the perspective from which they are presented.