A closer look at analytical signals

Analytical chemistry will be considered here as the measurement science of chemistry that generates, treats, and evaluates signals which contain information about the composition and structure of samples. Analytical information is always obtained from signals. Characteristics and peculiarities of analytical signals will be considered from a very general point of view. A mathematical model of the influencing of signals will be given from which essential performance characteristics of analytical methods can be derived, e.g. sensitivity, cross-sensitivity, specificity, selectivity, and ruggedness (robustness).