Abstract
The necessity to quantify a natural material's homogeneity with respect to its elemental distribution prior to chemical analysis of a given aliquot is emphasised. The instruments and methods which are currently available are described. Additionally, the calculation of element specific, relative homogeneity factors, H E and the minimum sample mass, M 5%, to achieve 5% precision on a 95% confidence level is given. Especially, in the production and certification of certified reference materials (CRMs) this characteristic information should be determined in order to provide the user with additional inherent properties of the CRM, to enable more economic use of the expensive material and to evaluate further systematic bias of the applied analytical technique.
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Received: 24 April 1999 / Accepted: 21 August 1999
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Rossbach, M., Grobecker, KH. Homogeneity studies of reference materials by solid sampling – AAS and INAA. Accred Qual Assur 4, 498–503 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s007690050422
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s007690050422