CONCLUSIONS OF THE WORKSHOP TRENDS IN SPECIATION ANALYSIS - AN OVERVIEW OF DISCUSSIONS ON ORGANOMETALLIC SPECIATION

The development of analytical techniques for the determination of chemical species has been one of the growing features of the 1990s in analytical chemistry. The need for good quality control of these determinations has led the Measurements and Testing Programme (formerly the BCR) to organize series of interlaboratory studies in the field of speciation analysis over the last five years. The state-of-the-art speciation analysis has been discussed in a first workshop in 1990 (Arcachon, France) and, at this stage, it was thought necessary to discuss the progress achieved and the trends which should be developed in the near future. A workshop on Trends in Speciation Analysis was therefore held in Rome in February 1994 which allowed recommendations to be made based on round-table discussions. This paper gives a summary of these recommendations in the field of organometallic speciation. Projects currently undertaken in the field of organometallic speciation within the M&T programme are also described. An outline of the progamme and a list of the panel of experts participating in this workshop are given in the appendix.