Chapter 41 - The Nature and Role of Primary Certified Isotopic Reference Materials: A Tool to Underpin Isotopic Measurements on a Global Scale

Abstract

This chapter focuses on isotopic reference materials with certified values that are traceable in the International System of Measurements and explains how they can be produced. It also overviews certain cases where such materials have already been realized. Although for many end-users the problems of not having such reference materials are often hidden, the usefulness of this approach is elucidated in the light of increased pressures to improve comparability of isotopic measurements across the borders of space, time, and scientific disciplines. Isotopic measurements are used as powerful investigative tools in many areas of science such as medicine, biochemistry, and geochemistry. Mass spectrometry is predominantly used, although infrared absorption spectrometry can be applied in particular cases. The importance of isotopic measurements reaches beyond the confines of pure research and has increased the demands on their quality and comparability. Primary isotopic reference materials, with values independent of human arbitrariness, can help to anchor the values of isotopic reference materials and therefore offer the basis for a truly internationally structured isotopic measurement system.