Two sub-branches come under analytical chemistry namely quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis which can be explained as follows. These two methods form the backbone of many educational labs of analytical chemistry.
1. Quantitative Analysis
Quantitative Analysis is a method of determining the absolute or relative quantity regarding the concentration of one or more substances present in a sample or compound.
For example, take a sample of an unknown solid substance. The chemists first use “qualitative” methods to identify what type of compound is present in the sample; then he adopts the quantitative analysis procedure to determine the exact amount or the quantity of the compound present in the sample.
Some Quantitative analysis techniques include Gravimetric Analysis and Volumetric analysis.
2. Qualitative Analysis
Quality means the standard or the feature of one substance. Hence, Qualitative analysis method deals with the determination of the quality of a particular compound, irrespective of its quantity or concentration. In simpler words, the qualitative analysis does not measure the amount of the substance but measures the quality of that material. One of the best examples of this type of method is the observation of a chemical reaction, whether there will be a change in colour or not.
The qualitative analysis method can be measured in different ways such as Chemical tests, flame tests, etc. Several such tests are widely used in salt analysis (identification of the cation & anion of inorganic salts).
Leave a Reply