Past, Present and Future of Green Analytical Chemistry
Miguel de la Guárdia, Salvador Garrigues
Abstract
The origin and evolution of the concept of green analytical chemistry (GAC), from the introduction, in 1995, of clean analytical methods to the present paradigm of democratic analytical chemistry (DAC), are considered in this introductory chapter. Today, GAC has been widely accepted by researchers and technicians and concerns a mixture of a pragmatic point of view concerning the reduction of expenses and an ethical compromise with environmental sustainability. In short, the main idea concerns maintaining analytical features of methods and avoiding deleterious side effects for operators and the environment. Considering theoretical developments in and the practical applications of GAC, a description of their evolution from the start of this philosophy is summarized. Finally, the evolution of classical GAC to the concept of DAC is presented and discussed.