Scientists, engineers, and technicians in a variety of fields often need information from chemical analysis in their work. Chemists themselves often require information provided by instrumental techniques outside their areas of specialization. This handbook allows readers to find information about the analytical instrumental techniques that are commonly used to provide information on chemical composition and structure.

The handbook presents each technique in a uniform format, in a style that can be understood by a reader who is not familiar with the particular technique. Each chapter is structured to provide a description of the information the technique can provide, a simple explanation of how it works, examples of its application, and practical information such as names of instrument vendors, relative costs of instruments and materials, training and education of personnel, and references for more detailed information. This format also facilitates comparison of techniques. The use of different authors to cover a broad spectrum of techniques resulted in some differences of style, but overall the handbook achieved its goal.

The techniques are grouped into eight sections, each with a different editor. I worked primarily with the section editors, each an experienced authority, to select the techniques for the sections. The editors were given a template and a sample chapter, which they in turn gave to their chapter authors. The authors were encouraged to provide theory and applications at an introductory level.

The chapters in the introductory section cover topics relevant to all techniques, including sample preparation, quantitative measurements, information management, and laboratory automation. The remaining seven sections address the major areas of chemical analysis: separations, qualitative spectrometry, quantitative spectrometry, mass spectrometry, electrochemistry, surface analysis, and polymer analysis. Each section is introduced by an overview chapter written by the section editor.

It is often the case that several complementary techniques may be required to provide the desired information. Also, as might be expected, there is some overlap among techniques, for example, the use of electrochemical techniques and mass spectrometers as detectors for separation techniques. In these cases, cross references provide the linkage among techniques. An extensive glossary and comprehensive index assist the reader with the terminology associated with each technique and relationships among techniques.

I welcome any suggestions for improvements in the organization, scope, and content of the handbook, as well as notification of any errors.