Abstract:

In the paper, the history of "yesterday, today and tomorrow" of analytical chemistry is briefly discussed. The "yesterday of analytical chemistry", which is based on the physical chemical principles, detects chemical changes by visual observations, thus, is called "chemical analysis". The "today of analytical chemistry" is mainly instrumental analysis based on physical methods, therefore, it is often said that "the chemistry is going out of analytical chemistry". The "tomorrow of analytical chemistry" will come back to the chemistry field. I hope that, the role of analytical chemistry is not limited to provide data and report for others, but to solve practical problems and even to produce new products.

Key words: Analytical chemistry, Instrumental analysis, Comprehensive analysis