Analytical Methods for Polar Pollutants

The last few decades have shown that analytical chemistry and environmental chemistry are “conjoined twins”. Neither can move significantly forward without the contribution and support of the other discipline. But in their conjoined development both disciplines have contributed much to our knowledge of environmental pollution, to the understanding of environmental processes, and to the development of measures and strategies to reduce contamination. Complementary to the following book chapters that focus on the occurrence and behavior of different classes of polar pollutants in the water cycle, this chapter provides an overview of the recent status of the other half of the “conjoined twins”, the analytical methods to determine these polar pollutants. This subject could easily be the topic of an independent book. Condensing it to one chapter requires considerable selectivity. Therefore, analytical strategies and approaches to the trace analysis of polar pollutants from environmental samples are outlined rather than described in detail.