Preparation of wastewater-based reference materials for heavy metal analysis and interlaboratory study

In this study, the wastewater-based reference material (RM) was prepared and certified for 7 trace metal elements with evaluation of uncertainties. The RM was distributed to 25 laboratories for the interlaboratory comparison testing. The certified values and expanded uncertainties were derived using ISO guideline 35 and the standard uncertainties for homogenieties were 0.43~2.67% of certified values. The analytical results from the interlaboratory comparison testing showed normal distributions and the robust means from the interlaboratory comparison testing were higher than the certified values of the RM for all analytes.