Sample homogenization

Achieving proper sample mixing is important and crucial for obtaining reliable, accurate and representative results in the laboratory. Also it is improving the efficiency of experimental processes and ensuring the validity of scientific findings. So getting of homogeny sample is crucial in analysis. Homogenization is part of the sample preparation procedure and includes mixing and blending of the sample, particle size reduction, and mass reduction. Yet because homogenization techniques are tedious and laborious, some laboratories do not incorporate it as part of their analytical protocol. Consequently, biased results can be obtained as a result of poor sample homogeneity. Diverse equipment and several procedures are available on the market, such as grinding with the common procedure based on mortar and pestle, as well as other techniques such as shearing, beating, and use of other instrumentation. In this chapter, several aspects related to sample homogenization are discussed in terms of needs, available techniques, and applications for different samples especially environmental and food samples. In the first part, the importance of homogenization is discussed. Also and theoretical base and uncertainty are considered. In the next part, different homogenization methods are presented. In the last part, application of homogenization in the analysis of different samples are presented. The main objective is to provide the necessary tools to achieve representative and homogenate samples, and especially to implicate environmental and analytical chemists in this subject so as to contribute toward obtaining more exact, precise, and comparable analytical results.