Tile Role of Analytical Chemistry in the Development of Modern Chemical Industry

On the basis of rich documentation, the paper defines the place of analytical chemistry in process control as well as the contribution of this science to the development of modern industrial chemistry. At present, analytical chemistry plays a decisivç role in the control of technological processes, and becomes one of the sciences bringing a particular contribution both to the production of goods required by modern society and to scientific research. The important contribution of chemistry to the scientific and technical revolution of the last decade leads implicitly to the development of analytical chemistry too, as an indispensable instrument both in scientific research and in the raw materials processing industry in general and chemical technology in particular. Modern analytical systems, based on the introduction of apparatus working directly in production process plants, as well as on the use of automatic equipment for laboratory analyses, have created conditions of rapid and ellicient control of the carrying on of technological processes, starting from the raw materials and continuing to the final products, throughout all the manufacturing stages. It is characteristic of modem analytical chemistry that the elaboration of new methods of analysis implies a more and more active participation, in addition to chemists, of skilled men from the most varied branches of science: physicists, mathematicians, electronics experts, cyberneticians, etc. Analytical chemistry is also characterized by its ever closer ties both with fundamental and applied research and with commercial production. Some years ago, our well-known scientist C. D. Nenitescu gave the following appreciation of the role of analytical chemistry: 'Analytical chemistry is the universal and infallible control of every production process, in any field of chemical industry itself also in metallurgy, in the fuels industry, in metropolitan or industrial plants for water supply, in agriculture, in medicine, etc. The quality, and to some extent, the quantity of our output, the efficiency of our technological equipment, our health, all depend upon the accuracy and promptitude of analytical control, effected at the appropriate time and place'. The modem trend in applied sciences to turn wholly to profit in a complex