The role of certified reference materials in ensuring the quality of spectrochemical measurements : the present status in Romania

The objective of quality assurance programme for spectrochemical measurements is to reduce the measurement errors to accepted limits. Reference materials are being widely used as measurement standards in the fields of industrial production, environmental protection and clinical chemistry, and are playing an important role in ensuring the quality of measurement results. This paper presents some aspects, practices and examples of the activity of the Reference Materials Laboratory of the National Institute of Metrology, Bucharest, in the field of spectrochemical measurements. An attempt to describe the role and use of reliable certified reference materials to ensure the quality of spectrochemical measurements is presented. A short review of the locally available certified reference materials used in spectrochemical measurements is given. The use of reference materials data in estimating the measurement uncertainty is discussed. An interlaboratory comparison, recently organized in Romania, is also presented as a useful response to the need for quality assurance of spectrochemical results.