Sediment Certified Reference Materials Research Articles

Reference materials and certified reference materials: An essential ingredient in environmental research and management

Certified Reference Materials (CRMs) are necessary and valuable tools in both research and routine chemical analysis for environmental management and in monitoring and surveillance programs. As part of the National Water Research Institute, Quality Assurance Program for environmental analysis, a series of RMs have been prepared for water analysis, and a variety of CRMs for sediment analysis. They include the world's first lake sediment CRMs for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), chlorobenzenes, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and selenium. This paper describes the research and development of the CRMs. It also briefly discusses the importance of CRMs and RMs in environmental research and management.

Extraction of butyltin species and their gas chromatographic determination as chlorides in a sediment certified reference material for trace metals, PACS-1

A gas chromatographic method has been developed for the determination of butyltin species in sediments. The butyltin species are separated as chlorides by using a DB-608 open tubular column after their extraction from the sediment using a combination of sonication in methanolic HCl and solvent extraction. Two extractants are possible: toluene—isobutyl acetate—tropolone and hexane—isobutyl acetate. The efficiencies for the first extractant are: tributyltin, 94.4 ± 4.7%; dibutyltin, 94.9 ± 2.2%; and monobutyltin, 86.3 ± 4.2%. The absolute detection limits are about 30 pg tin. Using a 1-g sample, the relative detection limits are about 30 ng tin per g sediment. These may be lowered to 3 ng tin per g by starting with a 4-g sample and adding a concentration step. The reference material PACS-1 was found to contain 1.08 ± 0.31 μg tin per g of tributyltin and 1.13 ± 0.30 μg tin per g of dibutyltin.

Determination of dimethylarsinate, monomethylarsonate, and inorganic arsenic in the extract of Pond Sediment certified reference material issued by the National Institute for Enviromnental Studies (Japan)

Determination of dimethylarsinate, monomethylarsonate, and inorganic arsenic in the extract of Pond Sediment certified reference material issued by the National Institute for Enviromnental Studies (Japan)