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The National Bureau of Standards, created by Congress in 1901, was redirected and renamed the National Institute of Standards and Technology in 1988. NIST’s unique mission is to promote U.S. economic growth by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards (see www.nist.gov). The Analytical Chemistry Division is one of five divisions within the NIST Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory and serves as the nation’s reference laboratory for chemical metrology. Development and evaluation of
measurement methods to support production of Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) is a core component of the division’s mission. This reference methodology serves as a foundation for the certification of chemical composition in more than 850 SRMs. It also provides traceability links for commercial reference material producers in the U.S. and measurement comparability links with other chemical metrology laboratories.
International trade and increased quality systems documentation demand a precise definition of “traceability to NIST” and that NIST establish documentation of measurement comparability with other national metrology laboratories. Certified reference materials are critical for establishing an unbroken chain to national standards. Since NIST cannot provide the quantities and varieties (exact matrices, unique compound combinations, concentration, etc.) needed for all the measurements made in the U.S., they have begun working with the private sector to develop NIST-Traceable Reference Materials (NTRMs). An NTRM is a commercially produced reference with a well-established traceability linkage (via criteria and protocols defined by NIST) to meet the needs of the metrological community to be served.
The gaseous NTRM program was implemented in 1992 in partnership with EPA and specialty gas companies as a means for providing end-users with the wide variety of certified gas standards needed to implement provisions of the 1990 Clean Air Act. NTRMs are produced by specialty gas companies with NIST overseeing their production and analysis. NTRMs can be developed for any compound whose concentration is bounded by a NIST primary specialty gas mixture. Certified concentration values are assigned by NIST according to a published protocol.
In 2003, Scott Specialty Gases was awarded a five year contract as sole-source supplier of candidate SRMs to NIST, including
1.0-ppm and 0.5-ppm nitric oxide SRMs.
The most recent information concerning equivalence of NIST primary standards for chemical measurements with other national metrology laboratories and regional alliances can be found on the NIST Analytical Chemistry Division website (http://www.cstl.nist.gov/nist839).
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