Detecting and circumventing sources of inaccuracy in flow analysis

Mechanized procedures for chemical analyses are susceptible to systematic errors usually difficult to trace. This holds also for flow analysis that although accepted worldwide may sometimes yield inaccurate results. The present work focused on the development of a simple system able to detect and circumvent sources of inaccuracy. The versatility inherent in the multicommuted flow analyzers was exploited for real-time characterization of the source of inaccuracy and overcoming the problem for every assayed sample. Specific situations where the analytical results are more susceptible to inaccuracy are emphasized.