From time immemorial, man has
been crazy about compounds, elements and their nature as to how they are formed
and how they react which each other. Thus, the immersing field of chemistry
came in to existence. This field got its name from an Arabic word alchemy which
involves spells and enchantments. It is said in alchemy that there is also a
possibility of changing all the metals to gold and that there is an elixir
which can keep you immortal.
When time progressed, man not only
experimented with reactions between different compounds and substances, but started
analyzing every single element present in the chemical substances. But for this
purpose, he needed to create powerful machines and tools since atoms are at
microscopic levels and working with them requires some quantitative techniques
which can help look into the matter form. Thus originated the analyzing devices
such as Atomic
Absorption Spectrophotometer and gas chromatograph, which helped
chemists to go deep in to compounds and analyze what they are made of. Atomic
Absorption Spectrometer operates in the principle of absorption
of light by elements in the compound.
Gas
chromatograph is also an analysis technique where in two phases are
involved; one is gas phase and other is the liquid phase. Here, the gas phase
is mobile and the liquid phase is stationary. The compound to be analyzed is
superheated to such an extent that it forms a gaseous mixture of elements and
then this mixture is allowed to pass through a glass column.