Modern analytical chemistry is dominated by instrumental analysis. Many analytical chemists focus on a single type of instrument. Academics tend to either focus on new applications and discoveries or on new methods of analysis. The discovery of a chemical present in blood that increases the risk of cancer would be a discovery that an analytical chemist might be involved in. An effort to develop a new method might involve the use of a tunable laser to increase the specificity and sensitivity of a spectrometric method. Many methods, once developed, are kept purposely static so that data can be compared over long periods of time. This is particularly true in industrial quality assurance (QA), forensic and environmental applications. Analytical chemistry plays an increasingly important role in the pharmaceutical industry where, aside from QA, it is used in discovery of new drug candidates and in clinical applications where understanding the interactions between the drug and the patient are critical.

    现代分析化学以仪器分析为主。许多分析化学师专注于一种仪器。专业学者要么专注于新应用和新发现;要么专注于新分析方法。出现在血液中可增大癌症风险的化学物质是化学分析师也许会遇到的一项发现。努力研发新方法时将会使用调谐激光器,以增大光谱法的特异性和灵敏度。新方法一但确立,会有意保持其不变,以便数据长期具有可比性。在工业质量保证(QA)、法医及环境方面尤其如此。分析化学在医药工业中发挥着越来越重要的作用,除用于质量保证之外，不但用于发现新候选药物,还用于临床。临床上,了解患者与药物间的相互作用是非常必要的。