Preparation and Certification of the New Certified Reference Materials, Plastics (JSAC 0601-1, JSAC 0602-1) for Determination of Hazardous Metal Constituents

Abstract

The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry has developed new plastic certified reference materials (CRMs) for the analysis of four hazardous elements (Pb, Cd Cr and Hg) in plastics to ensure the quality control of analyses. These CRMs (named as JSAC 0601-1 and 0602-1) were prepared by leading a raw material liquid of polyester resin mixed with hardener and organometallic compounds into a flat mold. The obtained plastics plates were crushed in a chip form by a mill, and sieved to obtain 0.5∼1 mm size pieces. An interlaboratory comparison study was performed with the participation of 20 laboratories. z-scores of the robust method were applied for a statistical analysis. The certified uncertainties were determined at the confidence levels of 95%. These presented CRMs are the first reference materials for plastics in Japan for the analysis of hazardous metals contained in plastics, and are expected to be useful for the quality assurance and quality control of trace metals in plastics.