Tunable plasma sources in analytical spectroscopy: Current status and projections

While the developments in spectrochemical instrumentation have (for the mos t part) kept pace with the quantitative challenges of a diversity of applic ations, the qualitative aspects of spectrochemical analysis lag far behind. This is, of course, the principal challenge of 'chemical speciation'. It s eems clear at this point that a paradigm shift is in order if the atomic sp ectrometry community is to step up and solve the practical problems present ed by biochemists, nutritionists, geologists, and environmental chemists. W e present here an outline for progress in this area along with a summary of recent developments in the area of tunable plasma sources.