Establishment of Traceability Chain For pH Measurement in Indonesia

Abstract

As a consequence of the globalization of trade and industries, the presence of an accurate and traceable measurement has become very important for quality assurance of a product or service in the market, including pH measurement. pH measurement is a basic analysis used in a wide variety of applications, such as agriculture, wastewater treatment, industrial processes, research and development, and environmental monitoring. The reliable and comparable results of pH measurement are advantaged as one of the parameters for quality control that will affect the decision making. The Electrochemistry Laboratory under Deputy of National Measurement Standard – National Standardization Agency of Indonesia (SNSU–BSN) has a main duty to ensure the reliability, comparability, and traceability of pH measurements in Indonesia, as a commitment in building chemical metrology infrastructure. In this article, all the activities related to the establishment of traceability chain for pH measurement in Indonesia are comprehensively discussed. As of currently, the Electrochemistry Laboratory has successfully developed the secondary method for pH measurement using differential potentiometric cell, production of certified reference material (CRM) for buffer solution (oxalate, phthalate, phosphate, and borate buffer), dissemination by proficiency testing (PT) schemes for pH measurement, participation in the key comparison (KC) of APMP.QM-K91 for phthalate buffer, and claim submission for the Calibration Measurement Capabilities (CMCs) of phthalate buffer (pH 3.97-4.03) with expanded uncertainty 0.004.