text: what is analytical chemistry?   analytical chemists measure things.  this is a very broad generalisation, but essentially an analytical chemist measures a quantity in order to elucidate the composition of a mixture or the structure of an unknown compound.   analytical chemists are found in a broad range of industries and professions. not all chemists wear white coats, in fact many forensic scientists start out their career as analytical chemists.  some common tools used by analytical chemists are:  1. mass spectra - this technique at a crude level will give you the molecular weight of a compound but on a more elegant level will also allow for some structural elucidation.  2. hplc (high performance liquid chromatography) - this technique allows a chemist to separate the components of a mixture by their affinity to certain substrates packed into a column and provides quantitative information on the amount of each component in a mixture. when coupled to a range of detectors such as mass spectrometer, nmr, or even a simple diode array detector can give very powerful technique to elucidate the composition of an unknown mixture.