Fresenius J Anal Chem (1998) 361 : 223–226

© Springer-Verlag 1998

E D I TO R I A L

Yu. A. Zolotov

Analytical Chemistry in Russia

Received: 7 July 1997 / Revised: 28 August 1997 / Accepted: 7 September 1997

Abstract Analytical Chemistry in the former Soviet Union and Russia is considered. Areas of the present analytical science in the country are noted and significant achievements are mentioned. Important centers of the researches are listed and education in Analytical Chemistry is examined.

1 Introduction On one hand, Russian Analytical Chemistry (AC) is, of course, a part of the world AC. On the other hand, it reflects requirements, possibilities and other peculiarities of Russia as a country, state, and society. AC as a scientific discipline is now closely connected with analytical service (AS) which is responsible for routine chemical analysis and real control of chemical composition, including process control, in various fields of national economy, health and environmental protection, state defense, and so on. A lot of good, sometimes brilliant, specialists – chemists, physicists or biologists – are involved in AC and AS in Russia. Over 250 scientists have the highest Dr. Sci. degree in AC and at least 2000 are Candidates of Sci., which is similar to the Ph.D. Many tens of thousands of specialists deal with analysis in AS in industry, agriculture, medicine, environmental protection, forensic science etc. There are remarkable achievements in both areas – AC and AS.

2 History Present Russian AC has good roots. The assay of ores and noble metals has been practiced in Russia for many centuries. In all probability, the first assay laboratories ap-

Y. A. Zolotov (Y) Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 31 Leninskii prospect, Moscow 117907, Russia

peared in the 16th century and analysts made use of a balance. The description of the assaying procedures may be found in a number of manuals dating back to the 18th century. The first treatises on chemical analysis also appeared in the 18th century. The famous Russian scientist Lomonosov (1711–1765) used weighing of initial and final reaction products systematically. Lomonosov established the first research chemical laboratory in Russia in 1748. On 1998, the 250th anniversary of the laboratory and of practical national chemistry will be celebrated. The XVI Mendeleev Congress on General and Applied Chemistry will be dedicated to this jubilee. Lomonosov was also one of the founders of Moscow University. Unfortunately, few of Lomonosov’s achievements are known outside Russia. Prof. T. E. Lovitz (1757–1804), a naturalized German, who had lived in St. Petersburg since childhood, initiated the microcrystalloscopic methods. He proposed using the shape of crystals for salt identification. Prof. V. M. Severgin (1765–1826) determined concentrations of solutions by comparing the intensity of their color with that of solutions containing defined amounts of the analyte. This was essentially the colorimetric technique. In the beginning of the 19th century he also wrote several manuals on assaying and testing of mineral waters and drugs. As early as the 18th century, AC was introduced into the curriculum of St. Petersburg Mining School (later Mining Institute) established in 1773. Students were taught fire assay and other techniques. Prof. G. I. Hess, known as one of the founders of thermochemistry and a chairman of Department of Chemistry of this school, created in 1808, introduced qualitative and quantitative analysis into the syllabus. The separate chair of AC in the Mining Institute was established in the middle of 19th century. It was the first chair of AC in Russia and one of the first in the world. One of the first Russian textbooks on AC has been published by Ivanov in 1849 (“Basics of Analytical Chemistry”). Of later textbooks the most popular was “Analytical Chemistry” by Prof. N.A. Menshutkin, the first edition

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of which was printed in 1871. The book ran into 16 editions and was translated and published in Germany, the USA, and Great Britain. The later history of AC in Russia and in the former Soviet Union is marked by many achievements including two significant modern analytical methods – chromatography and spectroscopy. Chromatography itself was discovered by the Russian scientist Mikhael Tswett in 1903. The first paper on TLC was published in 1938 by Prof. N. A. Izmailov and his graduate student M. S. Schreiber. Several new and interesting approaches in chromatography were elaborated by Dr. A. A. Zhukhovitskii. Significant results on surface interactions in chromatographic systems were obtained by Prof. A.V. Kiselev. Ligand-exchange chromatography was developed by our colleague Dr. V. A. Davankov. As to spectroscopic methods, Prof. B.V. L’vov was the founder of Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. Prof. L’vov suggested a special platform for electrothermal atomizers which is widely called the L’vov platform. During World War II, Mr. Babat in Leningrad published the paper which is considered as the first milestone of ICP spectrometry. Many organic analytical reagents were suggested in the 40–60s for UV-VIS spectrophotometry. Some reagents of this series are well known and still produced, as Arsenazo III or Dipicrilamine. The theory of interaction of organic reagents with metal ions was developed beginning with classical works of Prof. L. A. Chugaev who suggested dimethylglyoxime as a reagent for nickel and formulated some postulates of metal chelate chemistry. Some other achievements can be mentioned. Prof. N. A. Tananaev developed, simultaneously with F. Feigl, the spot test method in the 20s. Everybody dealing with ISE is familiar with the Nikolsky equation formulated in the 30s. The list of other achievements includes one of the first GCMS (V. L. Tal’roze), the first paper on capillary isotachophoresis (O.V. Oshurkova and B. K. Konstantinov), and the fundamentals and the first monograph on kinetic methods of analysis (K. B. Yatsimirskii). Prof. I. P. Alimarin played an important role in developing AC in the former USSR after War World II. He made remarkable contributions into the analysis of mineral raw materials and high purity substances, and developed different nuclear and radiochemical methods of analysis. For 36 years Prof. Alimarin served as a head of the AC Division of Lomonosov Moscow University. He was Chairman of the Scientific Council of AC of the USSR Academy of Sciences and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Analytical Chemistry. Prof. Alimarin received many awards. Prof. A. P. Terent’ev of Moscow University also should be mentioned, who dealt with functional organic analysis, proposed many new reactions for the purpose, and created a school.

3 Present state It is not so easy to characterize the present state of AC in Russia because almost all modern analytical methods and approaches are developed in Russia including: chromatography (GC, LC, HPLC, IC, CE, EKC); spectroscopy (AAS, AES, AFS, XRF, Lasers, UV-VIS); mass spectrometry (SSMS, LMS, SIMS, ICP-MS); electrochemical methods (voltammetry, coulometry, ISE); methods for surface and localization analysis (electron microprobe and other); nuclear methods (NAA); kinetic, enzymatic and immunomethods; chemical sensors; µ-TAS; express test methods for field analysis, FIA, CFA and related techniques. It is practically impossible to describe the general situation, successes and drawbacks in the development of these and other methods or approaches. Therefore, only several directions will be mentioned. Some general aspects of AC are treated, e.g. philosophy of AC (there are publications in this area, for example [1–3]), ideology of AS as a system [4], chemometrics, metrology, and sampling. Laser spectroscopy is developed in various kinds, including atomic photoionization spectrometry and thermal lens. ESR has been used for analytical purposes by applying analytical reagents with paramagnetic labels, namely a stable free radical part in the molecule of the reagent. In electrochemical methods, a lot has been accomplished in inverse volmammetry as well as coulometry and ISEs. There is a large school in solvent extraction. A significant part of the work on SE is published by Russian specialists.

4 Some centers From the organizing viewpoint, Science in Russia consists of three layers: (1) institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences; (2) universities and similar institutions for higher education and (3) so-called “branch science”, namely institutes of industry, agriculture, medicine, ministry of defense and so on, dealing mostly with applied research. This structure can be described as a pyramid with branch science as the base, because it has (more exactly: had) the most workers and money. As to basic, fundamental research, it is concentrated predominantly in the Academy of Sciences and universities. The Russian Academy of Sciences is a huge government organization having about 300 research institutes over the country. Each institute of the Academy has between a hundred and several thousand employees. AC is developed in several institutions of the Academy. The first one is Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and AC founded 50 years ago in Moscow. Many areas of AC are covered by the institute, for instance chemical sensors, spectroscopic, chromatographic, and nuclear methods or analytical chemistry of rare earth and transuranium elements. Prof. E. M. Galimov is the director of the institute and Prof. B. F. Myasoedov is the head of the AC division.

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Moscow Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry should also be mentioned. In this institute, elemental mass spectrometry, FIA, surface analysis and analytical chemistry of platinum metals are developed. There is also research on AC in other institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and not only in Moscow. For example, the Novosibirsk Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and the Niznii Novgorod Institute of High Purity Substances have made significant contributions to the analysis of high purity materials. Several analysts are members of the Russian Academy of Sciences – two full members: B. F. Myasoedov (analytical chemistry of transuranium elements, chemical sensors) and Yu. A. Zolotov (separation and preconcentration, trace analysis, test methods), and three corresponding members: L. A. Gribov (molecular spectroscopy), Yu. A. Karpov (analysis of high purity materials, gases in metals) and V. L. Tal’roze (mass spectrometry). There are several hundreds of universities and other institutions of higher education in Russia. Many of them have chairs in AC. Moscow University is the best known. Its division of AC has five research laboratories – chromatography, spectroscopy, electrochemical methods, kinetic methods, and preconcentration methods. Methods of chromatography, enzymatic methods, sorption preconcentration and rapid tests for field analysis, among others, have been developed. Interesting results in separation science have been recently obtained in St. Petersburg University by Prof. L. N. Moskvin [5, 6]. Saratov University is one of the centers for studying organic analytical reagents. Colleagues in Rostov and Irkutsk universities develop XRF spectrometry. Atomic absorption spectrometry is successfully developed in St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg technical universities and ISE in Moscow Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, as well as in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Saratov universities. As to “branch” AC, of note is the State Institute of Rare Metal Industry in Moscow where Prof. Yu. A. Karpov is a head of the Analytical Division, the Institute of Light Alloys dealing, for example, with gas impurities in metals. The Institute of Chemical Reagents recently celebrated its jubilee (80 years). Analysis of geological materials is developed in the Institute of Mineral Raw Materials. There are several metrological institutions including The Institute of Metrology in St. Petersburg.

5 Publications Zhurnal Analiticheskoi Khimii (Journal of Analytical Chemistry) is the major periodic publication in Russia. It has been published by the Academy of Sciences since 1946. Along with original contributions, it carries reviews, letters to the editor, and information items on conferences, books and equipment. The Journal is now published simultaneously in two versions – Russian and English. Two other publications that give much space to analytical chemistry are the Zavodskaya Laboratoriya (Plant

Laboratory) since 1932 and the Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii (Journal of Applied Spectroscopy). Many communications are published in other magazines, e.g., Doklady Akademii Nauk. There have been four series of books devoted to Analytical Chemistry: 1) Analytical Chemistry of Elements (1960–1990, about 50 volumes), 2) Methods of Analytical Chemistry (approximately 15 volumes during the 70s–80s), 3) Analytical Reagents (about 10 volumes in the 70s–90s) and 4) Problems of Analytical Chemistry (about 15 volumes on analysis of different substances and materials, 1970s–1990s). The Russian Chemical Abstracts Journal has been published since 1953 with the analytical section published both as a part of the large volume and separately.

6 Instruments There are some areas of analytical instrumentation which have been covered well by the domestic industry, for example XRF spectrometry, atomic emission spectroscopy, pH-metry, gas analyzers, and partially GC and MS. But, in general, domestic production of analytical devices is not powerful and flexible. At present, the situation with manufacturing analytical instruments is imperfect. We have not good domestic FTIR spectrometers, GC-MS, ICPAES or ICP-MS. Many instruments are purchased abroad. As to new approaches, original ideas in analytical instrumentation, there are many interesting and significant new devices, e. g. Microcolumn LC “Milikhrom”, AAS “Kvant”, Photometers of KFK series. Sometimes, ideas are realized as a result of joint projects with foreign partners, for example, the first portable IC, designed originally in Russia, has been improved by Biotronic Co. in Germany and is now on the market.

7 Co-ordinating organizations Analytical chemists work under the auspices of the Scientific Council for Analytical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences. The system of scientific councils was formed in the Academy in the 1960s. The councils were set up as public bodies designed to provide guidance and co-ordinate fundamental research on a national scale, regardless of departmental chains-of-command. The scope and importance of the Council have grown continuously. Prominent analytical chemists from research and educational establishments sit on the Council. The members of the Council are ranking analytical chemists and physicists, scientists of different generations from various regions of the country. Within the framework of the Council there is a bureau, 30 special committees and 5 regional branches. Annual sessions of the Council are quite popular. Various arrangements are made to promote research in various branches of AC. The Mendeleev Russian Chemical Society was organized in 1868. This is one of the oldest chemical societies

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in the world. At present, it has about 10 subject sections including AC section, and several associations under its umbrella. The Mendeleev Chemical Society participates in the organization of conferences, symposia and seminars, mostly for the exchange of experience and training. For example, there is the Moscow permanent seminar on the analysis of organic substances. About every 5 years, the Mendeleev Society and the Russian Academy of Sciences organize huge Mendeleev Congresses on General and Applied Chemistry. The Mendeleev Chemical Society has its own Russian Chemical Journal. An important duty of the society is its historical and memorial activity. The Scientific Council on AC and other scientific councils (on Chromatography) organize many national and regional conferences on AC such as conferences on AC of environmental objects or X-Ray spectrometry.

tometers and computers, are used at large metallurgical works. Sampling of molten metal to determine gas-generating impurities – carbon, hydrogen, sulphur, oxygen – is particularly important. To speed up the determination of carbon and sulfur the corresponding equipment is installed near the steel-making units. Great experience has been also accumulated in analysis of noble metals and of high purity substances, for example in electronics, metallurgy and chemical industry. An excellent analytical system is involved in the Russian Geological survey. AC and AS constantly solve complex problems concerning the analytical control in industry and assist in the development of new materials and substances. Several analytical methods, particularly separation and concentration procedures, have been applied on a commercial scale.

8 International contacts

10 Education

Russian analysts participate in many international organizations – IUPAC, DAC/FECS, Eurachem – and organization of permanent symposia with colleagues from foreign countries: biannual Russia-Japan joint symposia on AC (since 1982); biannual Russia-Ukraine-Germany symposia on AC (since the 90s). Other forms of cooperation include joint research projects, creation of training or advertising centers of foreign companies in Russia, membership in Editorial Boards of international journals, exchange of visits etc. Sometimes, international conferences are organized in Russia (Danube symposium on chromatography, CANAS, conference on solvent extraction etc.).

The last topic is Education. AC is taught in about 300 higher educational schools – universities and others. Usually 10 terms are needed for the preparation of a chemist. In total, AC for all chemistry students has 200–380 academic hours. The textbooks are both domestic and translated from English or German. Sometimes people outside AC consider AC as still classical wet chemistry. Unfortunately, it is one of the reasons why AC does not occupy a prime position in the state, in society, and even in science. To my knowledge, this is also true for other countries.

11 International Congress on Analytical Chemistry 9 Analytical service Analytical Service is a powerful and multifunctional system for many areas of application, e.g. for geology; ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy; electronics; chemical and petroleum industry; agriculture; environmental protection; health; forensic science or military fields including chemical weapons. These services are different in scope and power. There are services with huge potential and great experience and there are weaker bodies. For example in metallurgy, many laboratories deal with analysis of metals, alloys and materials, and control of metallurgical processes. Chemical analysis in ferrous metallurgy is characterized by extensive use of advanced equipment, a high level of automation, and prompt introduction of new techniques, these being important means of increasing production and improving its quality. Automated analytical systems comprising devices for taking samples, combined with quan-

On June 15–21, 1997 the International Congress on Analytical Chemistry was organized in Moscow. More then 500 participants attended the meeting. Almost all directions of modern AC were covered in several hundreds of invited, regular oral and poster presentations. This issue of the journal is devoted to materials of the congress.

References 1. Shaevich AB (1964) Zavodsk Lab 7:803–805 2. Zolotov YuA (1992) Analiticheskaya Khimiya: Problemi I Dostizheniy (Analytical Chemistry: Problems and Achievements). Nauka Publ House, Moscow 3. Zuckerman AM (1992) Fresenius J Anal Chem 343:817–818 4. Shaevich AB (1981) Analiticheskaya Sluzhba Kak Systema (Analytical Service as a System). Khimiya Publ House, Moscow 5. Moskvin LN (1994) J Chromatogr A669:81 6. Moskvin LN, Rodinkov OV, Kartuzov AN (1996) Zh Anal Khim 51:835–844