CURRENT STATUS, TRENDS AND CHALLENGES ON ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY IN BRAZIL

Abstract

This work describes the development of Analytical Chemistry in Brazil from the Brazilian Chemical Society (SBQ) foundation to the present days. Important historical facts were highlighted and data on the human resources formation, financial investments and scientific production were used to evaluate and contextualize the progress achieved. The evolution of the scientific events of the area was also presented. The survey shows that Analytical Chemistry has advanced a lot in these 40 years, occupying a prominent position in the international scenario. This growth is mainly due to the formation of qualified human resources, the organization of scientific societies and inductive policies. It was also verified that the quantitative advance was greater than the qualitative one. Thus, one of the challenges for the next years is to work at the knowledge frontier and increases the quality and impact of scientific production in Analytical Chemistry. The evolution of the area into current trends such as Nanoscience, Microfluidic, Omics, Chemometric, Green Chemistry and Chemical Speciation is also presented and discussed.