New Arctic Marine Sediment Certified Reference Material for Elemental Analysis

Abstract

A multi-elemental certified reference material (CRM) based on Arctic marine sediment was prepared and labeled GBW 07481. Approximately 4.5 kg of the sediment was collected during the third Chinese Arctic Expedition. The sediment was processed in procedures that included air drying, debris removal, drying, and milling. The final product contained particles that were generally smaller than 74 ;m representing 99% of the total mass. The powder was poured into clean 10-mL brown glass vials and a total of 300 vials were obtained. The homogeneity and stability were preliminarily investigated to assess the suitability of the marine sediment as a candidate CRM. The candidate material was demonstrated to be suitable for this purpose; and hence the certification project was accomplished with nine reputable laboratories. More than 10 reliable analytical methods, including inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), and x-ray fluorescence (XRF), were used for analyzing the sediment for 68 elements. The results should be useful for assessing the analytical accuracy of major, minor, and trace elements in marine sediments. Therefore, the CRM is expected to play an important role in Arctic geochemical surveys and environmental assessment.