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Environmental laboratories, extracting metals from soils
and sediments using the ISO11466:1995 protocol, can now monitor
the reliability and reproducibility of their results - thanks
to a new reference material available through LGC Promochem.
LGC6189 River Sediment has been specifically developed
by LGC to aid comparisons of metal extraction results between
laboratories - something traditionally very difficult to do
because most laboratories vary the time, temperature and acid
combinations of the ISO11466:1995 protocol according to their
own preferences.
Until now, there have been no standards against which laboratories
can check their results for bias or monitor the ongoing performance
of their metal extraction procedure, as available materials
were not specific to the exact method conditions.
To address this, LGC has characterised the new reference
material by extracting using the exact conditions specified
in the ISO protocol and measuring the concentration of those
metals that reached stable “extraction plateaus“ of
concentration after the specified two hour reflux time. Measurement
of the dissolved metal concentrations was carried out using
inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). A single
primary standard - closely matched to the analyte concentration
in the sample - was used to calibrate the procedure.
Once a laboratory has established the relationship between
results obtained using its own metal extraction conditions
and those obtained using the exact ISO procedure, the new
LGC6189 reference material can then be used to monitor the
ongoing performance of the laboratory’s protocol to ensure
consistency and reproducibility.
LGC6189 is packaged in 30g units in screw-capped amber glass
bottles. It comes with assessed values, with associated uncertainty,
for arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, manganese, molybdenum,
nickel, lead and zinc - as well as an indication of the mineral
composition of the sediment.
For further information about LGC6189 River Sediment and
related reference materials for extractable metals, contact
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LGC Promochem
Email: [email protected]
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