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Purity statements of high purity materials serving as primary standards by GDMS.
Primary standards are materials known for their total purity and therefore appropriate to realise the link with the International System of Units (SI). The realisation and dissemination of primary standards is of fundamental importance for comparability of measurement results through traceability in all fields of chemical analysis.
To serve as a primary standard for element determination the total purity of a high purity material needs to be measured. In order to achieve a sufficiently small uncertainty (i.e. < 0.01%) this involves determining all possible impurity contributions and to subtract their sum from the ideal purity of 100%.
GD-MS has the potential to reduce the effort for purity determination, as a fast sensitive multi-element analysis without extensive sample preparation. Similar to other solid sampling techniques, glow discharge
requires calibration link the measured signal and the content of the impurities in the matrix.
The use of the concept Relative Sensitivity Factors (RSFs) provides good approximations especially for high purity materials. However, it only works with a wide uncertainty of the results.
The preparation of synthetic pressed powder samples by different modifications of liquid and powder doping used for the determination of both metallic and none-metallic impurities are described. Efficient determination of metallic impurities by GD-MS via differential and absolute measurements with a significantly reduced target uncertainty of 20 % for absolute measurements using liquid doped pressed powder calibration could be achieved. The determination of impurities has been evaluated by independent analytical methods such as HR-ICP-MS, ETAAS; CGHE and combustion analysis
Millions of measurements are performed each year by liquid based analytical atomic spectrometry to support healthcare, diagnostic tests, environmental monitoring, material assay, product development and safety. Despite the effort to develop absolute methods, most methods still depend on calibration solutions, which are gravimetric mixtures of high purity solvents and high purity (source material) metals or compounds. As in the real world ideal purity does not exist, the impurity of the solvent and the purity of the source material needs to be known. The impurity of a solvent with respect to one analyte can be measured rather easily and with low limits of determination. In contrast the measurement of the purity of the source material, i.e., the mass fraction of the main constituent in a high purity metal, is more difficult to determine. It becomes even more difficult when the source material is not a pure metal but a compound since problems regarding stoichiometry arise additionally. Although the major producers of calibration solutions make a special effort to determine the purity of the source material, the actual purity statement is often incomplete or not demonstrated. The main reason for this situation is the complexity and high effort necessary to fully characterize such a material. This problem holds to a very wide extent also for the primary standards for element determination at the National Metrology Institutes and Designated Institutes (NMIs and DIs). It is the task of the NMIs and DIs to realise and disseminate primary standards for providing traceability to the International System of Units (SI). The primary elemental standards at the NMIs should provide the link to secondary standards produced by commercial producers and other independently prepared standards for element determination. Without such primary standards, elemental calibration solutions may vary and, depending on the uncertainty required, comparability of measurement in time and space results cannot be achieved.
Within the Working Group on Inorganic Analysis (IAWG) of the Consultative Committee for Amount of Substance: Metrology in Chemistry and Biology (CCQM) international key comparisons and pilot studies related to inorganic analysis are carried to ensure consistency in this field at the highest level. Some of these comparisons deal directly with the preparation and characterization of monoelemental solutions or with topics, closely related. The importance of monoelemental solutions lies in the fact that almost every measurement in inorganic analysis relies on the comparison with either a reference material, or references in form of solutions, usually (mono)elemental solutions. All quantitative measurement approaches, e.g. isotope dilution or standard addition, need an accurate reference solution made from a well characterized reference material, prepared under full gravimetric control. These primary (monoelemental) solutions do not only serve as arbitrary references/calibration solutions, but they also link up measurement results to the International System of units (SI), this way establishing the so-called metrological traceability to a measurement unit of the SI. Without such solutions on the highest possible level of accuracy and with the smallest possible associated uncertainties (for e.g. element content and/or impurities), an analysis itself can never be as good as it could be with appropriate reference solutions. This article highlights select key comparisons and pilot studies dealing with monoelemental solution related topics within the IAWG from the foundation of CCQM – 25 years ago – up to latest achievements in the field of inorganic analysis.