The development of modern instrumental methods has been aided by the rapid progress in technologies such as electronics and computing.

The original machines were low powered, weak and difficult to operate. They are, however, a great credit to the ingenuity of the chemists who designed and built them. Without the great start that they made, modern techniques such as MRI scanning could not be achieved. Elements and compounds can be detected and identified using a variety of instrumental methods.

Modern instrumental methods are accurate, sensitive and rapid and are particularly useful when the amount of a sample is very small.

Some instrumental methods are suited to identifying elements, such as atomic absorption spectroscopy used in the steel industry.

Other instrumental methods are suited to identifying compounds, such as infrared spectrometry (looking and bond vibrations), ultraviolet spectroscopy (looking particualrly at double bonds), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (looking at atoms with an odd mass number such as ¹H, ¹³C) and gas-liquid chromatography.

Some methods can be adapted for elements or compounds, such as mass spectrometry.