119 - Anselme Payen: a precursor of colorimetric analysis
Autor(s): G. Dall'Olio
Issue: RIMeL - IJLaM, Vol. 3, N. 2, 2007 (MAF Servizi srl ed.)
Page(s): 119-123
The development of the colorimetric analysis that allows to estimate the concentration of a colored solution comparing it with a solution of the same substance at known titer, begins in the second half of XIX century. The analyst visually carries out the comparison of the colour of the solutions using optical comparators or colorimeters. In XIX century colorimetry progresse since it is simpler and faster than the gravimetric and volumetric analysis inducing the evolution of the instuments devoted to these analyses (optical comparators and, in the Thirties of XX century, photoelectric colorimeters). Colorimetric analysis has been the most used analytical technique in Clinical Chemistry in the first decades of XX century and allowed the rapid evolution of this discipline since allowed rapid, simple and precise analysis, requiring small reagent and sample volume, an attractive feature for routine and automation. The first analyzer for colorimetry has been developed in 1825 by Anselme Payen, a French chemist, who called it decolorimeter.