This article describes high-performance liquid chromatography and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography that are used to separate and quantify the chemical components in any sample that can be dissolved in a liquid. This includes pharmaceutical drugs, medicinal plant extracts, food constituents, flavors, fragrances, industrial chemicals, pesticides, and pollutants. Readers are introduced to the most commonly employed mode, reverse-phase chromatography, with examples and an exclusive focus on commercially available instruments and consumables. The discussion covers the various processes involved in liquid chromatography, including assessing a separation of sample components, adjusting the mobile phase, choosing the stationary phase, optimizing a separation, preparing real samples, and analyzing complex samples.

This article introduces the fundamental concepts and the essential components of liquid chromatography (LC). It discusses the different modes of LC, such as liquid-solid chromatography, liquid-liquid chromatography, bonded-phase chromatograph, normal-phase chromatography, reversed-phase chromatography, ion-exchange chromatography, ion-pair chromatography, and size-exclusion chromatography. The article also includes a discussion on the qualitative and quantitative analyses and the applications of LC.

This article focuses on epoxy because this resin category has widespread use and because it is tested using quality control measures typical of most resin systems. It explains that a typical resin system will consist of one or more epoxy resins, a curing agent, and a catalyst to control the rate of reaction. The article describes the component material tests, mixed resin system tests, and prepreg tests for the resin system. These tests include high-performance liquid chromatography, infrared spectroscopy, and gel permeation chromatography. The article contains a table that lists typical resin and prepreg property tests.

Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) is useful in analyzing mixtures of organic compounds. This article commences with a description of the principles of mass spectrometry and gas chromatography. It provides information on the procedures of mass spectrum interpretation, and describes the experimental procedure of and sample preparation for GC/MS. The article also discusses complementary techniques, such as high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry, and concludes with the applications of GC/MS.

This article introduces various analytical techniques commonly used in the characterization of organic solids and liquids and discusses the challenges in performing the analysis, with examples. Some general advice in approaching a material analysis is also provided.

This article addresses some established protocols for characterizing thermoplastics and whether they are homogeneous resins, alloyed, or blended compositions or highly modified thermoplastic composites. It begins with a discussion on characterizing mechanical, rheological, and thermal properties of polymer. This is followed by a section describing molecular weight determination using viscosity measurements. Next, the article discusses the use of cone and plate and parallel plate geometries in melt rheology. It then reviews the processes involved in the analysis of thermoplastic resins by chromatography. Finally, the article covers three operations of thermoanalysis, namely differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, and thermomechanical testing.

This article is dedicated to gas chromatography (GC), covering the chromatographic method and primary components of a modern GC apparatus. The components include the carrier gas cylinder, flow controller and pressure regulator, sample inlet and injection port, column oven, and detector. Common GC detectors are the thermal conductivity cell detector, flame ionization detector, electron capture detector, sulfur chemiluminescence detector, and nitrogen-phosphorus detector.

Ion chromatography (IC) is an analytical technique that uses columns packed with ion exchange resins to separate ions in aqueous solutions and dynamically elute them to a detector. This article provides information on the different modes of detection, namely, eluent-suppressed conductivity detection, single-column ion chromatography with conductivity detection, ion chromatography with spectrophotometric detection, and amperometric electrochemical detection. It describes the modes of separation techniques in IC and reversed-phase IC. The article discusses the detection capabilities of IC, the procedures for preparing solid and liquid samples, as well as the applications of IC.

This article provides an overview of common analytical tools used as part of the process of providing practical information regarding the causes of a coating problem or failure. The common analytical tools include Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, chromatography, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Test cabinets and standard test environments for laboratory analysis are reviewed. The article describes non-standard simulation testing and case studies of simulated environments for coating failure analysis.

This article briefly discusses popular techniques for metals characterization. It begins with a description of the most common techniques for determining chemical composition of metals, namely X-ray fluorescence, optical emission spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy, high-temperature combustion, and inert gas fusion. This is followed by a section on techniques for determining the atomic structure of crystals, namely X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, and electron diffraction. Types of electron microscopies most commonly used for microstructural analysis of metals, such as scanning electron microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, and transmission electron microscopy, are then reviewed. The article contains tables listing analytical methods used for characterization of metals and alloys and surface analysis techniques. It ends by discussing the objective of metallography.

This article presents a detailed account of ion chromatography (IC). It begins by describing the principles of common separation modes in IC. This is followed by a section on the different modes of detection, namely suppressed conductivity detection, nonsuppressed conductivity detection, spectrophotometric detection, and electrochemical detection. Various separation modes in IC are then described. The article further provides information on various eluents species, analyte range, and sample preparation techniques in IC. It ends by providing information on the instrumentation and applications and future directions of IC.

Leak testing is used to determine the rate at which a liquid or gas penetrates from inside a component or assembly to the outside, or vice versa. This article discusses the type of leaks, namely real leaks, and virtual leaks. It describes the leak testing of fluid systems at pressure through acoustic method and bubble testing. The article gives a short note on types of leak detectors, sulfur hexafluoride detectors and mass-spectrometer. It tabulates the pressure and vacuum system leak-testing methods and discusses the application of gas detectors in leak testing.

This article provides a background to the biological evaluation of medical devices. It discusses what the ISO 10993 standards require for polymeric biomaterials and presents examples of qualitative and quantitative tests that can be used to satisfy these requirements. The article describes infrared (IR) and thermal analyses that are used extensively to fingerprint polymeric materials. It also presents a discussion on the chemical characterization and risk assessment of extracts. Background information on risk assessments of extracts is also included. The four basic steps that are commonly used in the risk assessment process are discussed. These include hazard identification, dose-response assessment, and exposure assessment, and risk characterization.

This article discusses the major methods of elemental analysis, namely, the combustion method for carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen; the Kjeldahl method for nitrogen; and the Schoniger flask method for other common elements. It also discusses the methods of functional group analysis for acids, alcohols, aldehydes and ketones, amines, esters, aromatic hydrocarbons, peroxides, phenols, water (Karl Fischer method), and alkenes.

Identification of alloys using quantitative chemical analysis is an essential step during a metallurgical failure analysis process. There are several methods available for quantitative analysis of metal alloys, and the analyst should carefully approach selection of the method used. The choice of appropriate analytical techniques is determined by the specific chemical information required, the condition of the sample, and any limitations imposed by interested parties. This article discusses some of the commonly used quantitative chemical analysis techniques for metals. The discussion covers the operating principles, applications, advantages, and disadvantages of optical emission spectroscopy (OES), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), X-ray spectroscopy, and ion chromatography (IC). In addition, information on combustion analysis and inert gas fusion analysis is provided.

This article endeavors to familiarize the reader with a selection of different ionization designs and instrument components to provide knowledge for sorting the various analytical strategies in the field of solid analysis by mass spectrometry (MS). It begins with a description of the general principles of MS. This is followed by sections providing a basic understanding of instrumentation and discussing the operating requirements as well as practical considerations related to solid sample analysis by MS. Instrumentation discussed include the triple quadrupole mass spectrometer and the time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Inductively coupled plasma and thermal ionization MS provide atomic information, and direct analysis in real-time and matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization MS are used to analyze molecular compositions. The article describes various factors pertinent to ionization methods, namely glow discharge mass spectrometry and secondary ion mass spectrometry. It concludes with a section on various examples of applications and interpretation of MS for various materials.

This article describes the most significant tests to characterize the properties of constituent materials. It discusses the chemical, physical, and mechanical tests for determining the properties of reinforcement fibers and fabrics. The article provides information on some of the basic materials used for thermoset and thermoplastic resin matrices. It reviews the identification of the individual characteristics of thermoset and thermoplastic resin along with the test methods normally used for their determination. The article contains a table that lists properties and tests for uncured and cured thermoset-matrix resins and prepregs.

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is a useful technique for characterizing materials and providing information on the molecular structure, dynamics, and environment of a compound. This article provides the basic principles and instrumentation of IR spectroscopy. It discusses the sampling techniques of IR spectroscopy, namely, attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy, emission spectroscopy, and photoacoustic spectroscopy, and chromatographic techniques. Explaining the qualitative analysis of IR spectroscopy, the article provides information on spectral absorbance-subtraction, analysis of components in spectral matrix mixture, and determination of exact peak location of broad profiles. It discusses the quantitative analysis that mainly includes Beer's law for single compound in single wave number. The article also exemplifies the applications of IR spectroscopy.