CERTIFICATION OF POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC-HYDROCARBONS IN A MARINE SEDIMENT STANDARD REFERENCE MATERIAL

The certification of natural matrix environmental standard reference m aterials (SRMs) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is based on the agreement of results from two or more different analytical techniques. Four different analytical techniques were used for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a new marine sediment reference material, SRM 1941a, Organics in Marine Sediment. These procedures were based on reversed-phase liquid chroma tography (LC) with fluorescence detection, a multidimensional LC proce dure, and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry on two stationary phase s with different selectivity for the separation of PAH isomers. The re sults from these four approaches were in good agreement and were combi ned to provide certified concentrations for 23 PAHs, which represents the largest number of certified concentrations for PAHs in any natural matrix SRM.