Acceleration and Automation of Solid Sample Treatment

Analytical Freeze-Drying. Steps of the freeze-drying process. Variables influencing the freeze-drying process. Freeze-drying methods. Computer-assisted analytical freeze-drying.

Analytical Uses of Ultrasounds. General aspects of the cavitation phenomenon. Types of ultrasonic devices. Ultrasound-assisted leaching. Ultrasound-assisted sampling.

Solid Sample Treatments Involving the Removal of Volatile Species. Hydride and cold mercury vapour generation. Headspace sampling. Analytical pervaporation. Solid-phase microextraction.

Microwave-Assisted Solid Sample Treatment. Fundamentals of microwave energy and its interaction with matter. Microwave equipment. Variables governing microwave-assisted processes. Applications of microwaves to solid sample treatment.

High-Pressure, High-Temperature Solvent Extraction. Variables affecting the extraction process. Accelerated solvent extraction. Dynamic pressurized solvent extraction.

Analytical Supercritical Fluid Extraction. Properties of supercritical fluids. Laboratory-built and commercial supercritical fluid extractors. Variables influencing supercritical fluid extraction. Approaches to improving SFE performance.

Devices For Solid Sample Treatment Prior to Introduction into Atomic Spectrometers: Electrothermal Devices and Glow-Discharge Sources.. Electrothermal atomizers and vaporizers. Glow-discharge sampling. Other solid sampling approaches.

Laser-Assisted Solid Sampling. Laser ablation. Laser-induced plasma spectroscopy.

Robotic Solid Sample Pretreatment. Workstations, robots, modules and peripherals. The role of robots in the analytical process. Analytical scope of application of robotics. Present and future of robotics.