Abstract
An original strategy to evaluate analytical procedures is proposed and applied to verify if the flow-based methods, generally favorable in terms of green chemistry, are competitive when their evaluation also relies on other criteria. To this end, eight methods for the determination of zinc in waters, including four flow-based ones, were compared and the Red–Green–Blue (RGB) model was exploited. This model takes into account several features related to the general quality of an analytical method, namely, its analytical efficiency, compliance with the green analytical chemistry, as well as practical and economic usefulness. Amongst the investigated methods, the best was the flow-based spectrofluorimetric one, and a negative example was that one involving a flow module, ICP ionization and MS detection, which was very good in analytical terms, but worse in relation to other aspects, which significantly limits its overall potential. Good assessments were also noted for non-flow electrochemical methods, which attract attention with a high degree of balance of features and, therefore, high versatility. The original attempt to confront several worldwide accepted analytical strategies, although to some extent subjective and with limitations, provides interesting information and indications, establishing a novel direction towards the development and evaluation of analytical methods.
Highlights
Choosing the best analytical method in general terms from the many procedures available today is not straightforward, especially when it comes to the wide variety of methods for the determination of metals in water
The ranking was made on the basis of the overall evaluation of the methods expressed by the whiteness parameter, assigning each of them numbers from 1 to 8
When comparing different methods and choosing the best one, it is important to determine what the primary criterion for selection is—the overall potential, the score obtained for a given trait, the evaluation of a specific criterion or several of them, or the degree of differentiation of individual criteria
Summary
Choosing the best analytical method in general terms from the many procedures available today is not straightforward, especially when it comes to the wide variety of methods for the determination of metals in water. In addition to meeting the requirements relating to validation criteria (accuracy, precision, limit of quantification and others), it is important to ensure high practical and economic efficiency Criteria such as cost, time, ease of use and other practical requirements are extremely important for practitioners who decide to choose a specific procedure from among the many alternatives available in the literature. The assessment of the method in this respect is made difficult by the fact that in the scientific literature these parameters are often discussed very briefly and without comparison with other alternative analytical approaches Another important issue nowadays is the assessment of compliance with the idea of minimizing human impact on the environment and increasing the safety of use, i.e., greenness of the analytical method. The last one formulates 12 GAC rules, which postulate, among others, minimizing the consumption of reagents and energy, reducing waste production, increasing user safety and increasing the integration and automation of analytical procedures
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