Quantitative Chemical Analysis

Citation

Harris, D. C., & Lucy, C. A. (2026). Quantitative Chemical Analysis (11th ed.). Macmillan Learning.

Chapter Summary

The publisher's contents list gives 28 chapters, numbered 0 to 27, with titles only. The tenth edition (2020) has the same authors; its chapter numbering and some titles may differ, so confirm the contents of the copy you are using. The order of the current edition runs from the analytical process and measurement, through statistics and calibration, into a long block on equilibrium and titrations, and then to sampling and the instrumental families.

Chapter 0: The Analytical Process

An opening chapter, numbered zero, that precedes the chapters on measurement. Its title names the analytical process as the first subject of the book.

Chapters 1–3: Chemical Measurements; Tools of the Trade; Experimental Error and Uncertainty

Three foundation chapters on measuring: the quantities and units of chemical measurement, the equipment of the laboratory, and the nature of experimental error and uncertainty.

Chapters 4–5: Statistics; Quality Assurance and Calibration Methods

Statistics and quality assurance are placed before any chemistry of equilibrium, together with calibration methods. The author biography credits co-author Charles Lucy with the greatest influence on the statistics, spectrophotometry and chromatography chapters, and with end-of-chapter problems that stress graphical examination of data.

Chapters 6–12: Chemical Equilibrium; Let the Titrations Begin; Activity and the Systematic Treatment of Equilibrium; Monoprotic Acid-Base Equilibria; Polyprotic Acid-Base Equilibria; Acid-Base Titrations; Analytical Complexation

The longest block of the book: seven consecutive chapters on equilibrium and the titrations that rely on it. Titrations are introduced in Chapter 7, right after the general equilibrium chapter, and the acid–base equilibrium chapters (monoprotic, then polyprotic) lead to the chapter on acid–base titrations. Chapter 8 treats activity and a systematic approach to equilibrium problems. Complexation closes the block in Chapter 12.

Chapter 13: Sampling and Sample Preparation

A single chapter on how a representative sample is obtained and prepared, placed after the equilibrium block and before the instrumental methods.

Chapters 14–17: Fundamentals of Electrochemistry; Electrodes and Potentiometry; Redox Titrations; Electroanalytical Techniques

Electrochemistry begins with its fundamentals and then moves to electrodes and potentiometry. Redox titrations sit between potentiometry and the electroanalytical techniques of Chapter 17.

Chapters 18–22: Fundamentals of Spectrophotometry; Applications of Spectrophotometry; Spectrophotometers; Atomic Spectroscopy; Mass Spectrometry

Spectrophotometry is split into principles, applications and instruments. Atomic spectroscopy and mass spectrometry follow as separate chapters.

Chapters 23–26: Introduction to Chromatography; Gas Chromatography; High-Performance Liquid Chromatography; Chromatographic Methods and Capillary Electrophoresis

A general chapter on chromatography precedes gas and high-performance liquid chromatography, and a closing chapter covers further chromatographic methods together with capillary electrophoresis.

Chapter 27: Gravimetric and Combustion Analysis

The final chapter groups gravimetric and combustion analysis, placed at the end of the book.

Key Concepts

Chapters 0–5: Process, measurement and statistics

• Analytical process: the sequence by which a chemical question becomes an analytical result (Chapter 0).
• Experimental error and uncertainty: the reliability of a measurement (Chapter 3).
• Statistics, quality assurance and calibration: the tools for judging and standardizing results (Chapters 4–5).

Chapters 6–13: Equilibrium, titrations and sampling

• Activity and the systematic treatment of equilibrium: handling real solutions and multi-equilibrium problems (Chapter 8).
• Acid–base and complexation equilibria: monoprotic and polyprotic systems and analytical complexation (Chapters 9, 10, 12).
• Titrations: acid–base (Chapter 11) and, later, redox titrations (Chapter 16).
• Sampling and sample preparation: obtaining the material to be analysed (Chapter 13).

Chapters 14–27: Instrumental and classical methods

• Potentiometry and electroanalytical techniques: electrodes and electrochemical measurement (Chapters 14–17).
• Spectrophotometry, atomic spectroscopy and mass spectrometry: optical and mass-based measurement (Chapters 18–22).
• Chromatography and capillary electrophoresis: separation methods (Chapters 23–26).
• Gravimetric and combustion analysis: measurement by mass (Chapter 27).

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Breadth in one volume. The contents list covers measurement and statistics, equilibrium and titrations, sampling, electrochemistry, spectrophotometry, atomic spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, chromatography, capillary electrophoresis and gravimetric and combustion analysis, so a single book can serve a full-year analytical sequence.
• Substantial worked support. According to the publisher, the book contains Examples and Exercises with full solutions, Problems with answers in the back of the book and solutions in a separate manual, and, in the current edition, full solutions for the "Test Yourself" problems that accompany the Examples.
• Problem sets that use research material. The author biography of Charles Lucy describes new end-of-chapter problems that emphasize graphical examination of data, draw on primary sources and research publications, and use online tools such as a chromatography simulator.
• Topical framing. The publisher says that chapter openers and examples come from the literature, that the current edition adds more than 25 profiles of people working in analytical chemistry and career information, and that figure captions, margin notes and videos acknowledge undergraduate research.

Limitations

• Heavy early weight on equilibrium. Seven consecutive chapters (6–12) deal with equilibrium and titrations before sampling or any instrument chapter appears, so a course that wants instruments early has to reorder the reading.
• Large and edition-dependent. With 28 chapters the book is more than a single course can cover, and the publisher has issued a new edition after the tenth (2020), so chapter numbers in reading lists and solution sets differ between editions.
• Publisher claims are not independent evidence. Descriptions such as "gold standard" and "rigorous" come from the publisher's marketing page; the contents list and the problem-support details above are the verifiable parts.

Where It Fits in the Course

Harris and Lucy and Harvey are the two full-length general texts among the analytical chemistry books on this list. Harvey's Analytical Chemistry 2.1 is a free, openly licensed alternative at a similar level, with fifteen chapters and separate chapters on method development and quality assurance; the two overlap on statistics, equilibrium, titrations and the major instrumental families. Harris's own Exploring Chemical Analysis is described as a shorter and less mathematical companion to this book, which makes it a gentler first pass or a source of a second explanation.

For depth beyond this book, Rouessac and Rouessac's Chemical Analysis: Modern Instrumentation Methods and Techniques concentrates on instruments, Skoog, Holler and Crouch's Principles of Instrumental Analysis is the upper-level instrumental text, and Bard, Faulkner and White's Electrochemical Methods is a graduate treatment that extends the electrochemistry of Chapters 14–17.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at students taking a course in analytical chemistry who have finished general chemistry; the publisher's pages do not state formal prerequisites. It works best as a main text that is followed in order through the first half and then used selectively.

A practical plan for a one-year course:

• Core: Chapters 0–5 for the analytical process, measurement, error, statistics and calibration; Chapters 6–12 for equilibrium and titrations; Chapter 13 for sampling.
• Instrumental block (choose by course emphasis): electrochemistry in Chapters 14–17, spectrophotometry and atomic spectroscopy in Chapters 18–21, chromatography in Chapters 23–26. Mass spectrometry (Chapter 22) and capillary electrophoresis (in Chapter 26) are natural trims for a shorter course.
• Final chapter: gravimetric and combustion analysis (Chapter 27), which may be read at any point, for example alongside the titration chapters.

Work the Examples before the Problems, and check yourself on Problems with the answers in the back; the separate solutions manual is the route to full worked answers. Because the contents differ between editions, check the table of contents of the edition your course uses before following a chapter list from an older syllabus.