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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2006 Jun 27.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Analyt Chem. 2005 Mar;24(3):199–207. doi: 10.1016/j.trac.2005.01.003

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Schematic representation of the three principal classes of instrumental methods for trace-level analysis. The analytical information obtained from a given sample may be drastically different, especially if the analyte is complexed, chemically inert, or chemically adsorbed on particulate matter. Depending on the analytical information desired, the use of any of the three methods is attractive. Note that the analytical information obtained from each method may be varied to some extent by using sample pretreatment or analytical separation before the actual measuring step.