Speciation of Sophisticated Toxic Elements

Speciation as a discipline in Analytical Chemistry Analytical activities of identifying and (or) measuring the quantities of one or more individual chemical species in a sample. According to the IUPAC has published guidelines or recommendations for the definition of speciation analysis; "Speciation analysis is the analytical activity of identifying and measuring the quantities of one or more individual chemical species in a sample". The chemical species are specific forms of an element defined as to isotopic composition, electronic or oxidation state and complex or molecular structure. The speciation of an element is the distribution of a component amongst defined chemical species in a system. In case that it is not possible to determine the concentration of the different individual chemical species that sum up the total level of an element in a given matrix, that means it is impossible to determine the speciation, it is a useful practice to do fractionation instead.