Speciation of Trace Elements and its Importance in Environmental and Biomedical Sciences

Recent trends in trace element research has changed the direction and shifted from total content to speciation analysis since differentiating between toxic and less toxic species has become a priority. With time speciation analysis has grown exponentially to the point where speciation almost exclusively refers to trace element species. Currently, speciation analysis of trace elements covers wide areas of research such as, for example, studies of biogeochemical cycles or determination of toxicity and ecotoxicity. Continued rapid growth in speciation interests has resulted in huge developments in chemical methodology and analytical instrumentation. In recent decades an artificial distinction was proposed between “environmental” and “biological/medical” speciation however, this division seems to not be fully justified since both fields face the same analytical problems. In this chapter a short history of speciation analysis as a new discipline in analytical chemistry, which is of relevance to scientists with many different backgrounds, is briefly presented. Moreover, various aspects of speciation analysis have been mentioned including the brief discussion regarding some still unsolved problems of measuring element species arising from the complexity of speciation-related studies. Basic terms relevant for speciation analysis have also been addressed. Although a wide variety of analytical techniques have been applied to determine element species in different environmental and biological matrices the scope of this chapter will be limited to presenting only recent achievements in this field. Emphasis is placed upon the potential applications of speciation analysis and current trends in this matter.