All Issues
Addressing analytical challenges in estimation of precious metals (Ag, Au, Pd, Pt) across a wide range of samples
Author : Manish Banerjee
DOWNLOAD PDF
ABSTRACT
With the rapid development of technology, new and improved materials have become indispensable in our daily life. Consequently, certain metals have gained immense importance compared to others as more and more mature materials are evolving. One such group is the precious metals comprising mainly silver, gold, palladium and platinum. Their application ranges from jewelry and kitchen wares to sensors, energy storage and conversion devices, electronic circuits, etc. Following this global realization most of the developed and developing countries have extended their effort to find and extract these elements from nature. This has led to several geochemical mapping programs in these countries to trace these elements. Moreover, applications of these metals have led to extensive use contributing to heavy metal footprints in the environment. The consequent accumulation of the elements in the natural environment causes detrimental effect on human beings and other living organisms. Therefore, sometimes it becomes necessary to enhance the analytical ability of the technique to trace the metals to ppb and sub-ppb level, for “chemical autopsy” of the samples to enhance ecological consciousness in the society. Analysis of samples of diverse origin such as archaeological, geological, environmental, waste materials, industrial, nanomaterials, biomaterials, etc. have been addressed. Spectroscopic techniques, with various internal modifications have played a crucial role in the determination of these elements. The present review comprises of the multiple spectroscopic and non-spectroscopic techniques, including destructive and non-destructive techniques, and their modification available in order to precisely determine the precious metals in samples of different backgrounds.
KEYWORD
Precious metals, spectroscopy, chemosensor, non-destructive, analysis