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Material Measurement Laboratory

Chemical Sciences Division

Infrastructure

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Photomontage showing concrete mixing, an oil refinery, steel production, and metal ingots.
Credit: AdobeStock

CSD is responsible for the production and maintenance of more than four hundred manufacturing-related reference materials, notable for the production and processing of metals, ores, cements, petroleum, and related materials. Collectively, these SRMs have served an invaluable function within the overall context of a broad range of manufacturing and construction industries for many years. Within the past three years, CSD has been involved in the production and certification of over fifty new manufacturing-related reference materials, to provide continued support to the Nation’s manufacturing infrastructure and to expand this offering in response to changes in manufacturing processes.

PROJECT AREAS

Reference Materials

Table NumberTable Title
 full list of tables
101.1Plain Carbon Steels (chip form)
101.1Stainless Steels (disk form)
101.11Specialty Steels (disk form)
101.12Steel Making Alloys (powder form)
101.13Cast Irons (chip form)
101.14Cast Steels, White Cast Irons, and Ductile Irons (disk and block form)
101.2Low Alloy Steels (chip form)
101.3Special Low Alloys Steels (chip and pin forms)
101.4High Alloy Steels (chip form)
101.5Gases in Ferrous Metals (rod and disk)
101.6Stainless Steels (chip and powder forms)
101.7Tool Steels (chip form)
101.8Low Alloy Steels (disk and rod forms)
101.9High Temperature Alloys (chip and disk forms)
102.1Aluminum Base Alloys (chip and disk form)
102.1Lead Base Alloys (disk and powder forms)
102.12Nickel Base Alloys (chip and disk form)
102.15Tin Base Alloys
102.16Titanium Base Alloys (chip and disk forms)
102.17Zinc Base Alloys (block, chip, and disk forms)
102.18Zirconium Base Alloys (chip form)
102.2Cobalt Base Alloys (chip and disk forms)
102.3Copper Base Alloys (chip, granule, and rod forms)
102.4Copper Base Alloys (block and disk forms)
102.5Copper Benchmark (block and disk forms)
103.2Synthetic Glasses
103.4Semiconductors
104.1High Purity Metals
108.2Metal Constituents in Fossil Fuels
108.3Sulfur, Mercury and Chlorine in Fuels
108.4Moisture in Oils and Alcohols
108.6Fossil Fuel Trace elements
108.9Biomass Feedstock
111.2Ores
111.4Clays
111.5Rock and Minerals
111.6Refractories
111.7Soils, Sediments, and Sludges
112.3Glasses
113.1Cements and Related materials
113.2Portland Cement Clinkers
114.2Lubricating Oils
202.1Polymers
208.3Viscosity of Glass
301.2Cement and Coal Fly Ash Fineness
309.5Bleached Kraft Pulps
309.6Secondary Ferrite Standards
309.7Fracture Toughness of Ceramics

Associated Publications

1. Sieber, J., Marlow, A., Paul, R., Barber, C., Wood, L., Yu, L., Rieke, A., Carl, R., Kutnerian, A., McCandless, J., and Wallace, C., "Quantitative analysis of zirconium alloys using borate fusion and wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry," X-Ray Spectrometry, 50, 210-223 (2021).

   2.   Rocha, W. F. D., Presser, C., Bernier, S., Nazarian, A., and Sheen, D. A., "Laser-driven calorimetry and chemometric quantification of standard reference material diesel/biodiesel fuel blends," Fuel, 281, (2020).

   3.   Jahrman, E. P., Seidler, G. T., and Sieber, J. R., "Determination of Hexavalent Chromium Fractions in Plastics Using Laboratory-Based, High-Resolution X-ray Emission Spectroscopy," Analytical Chemistry, 90, 6587-6593 (2018).

   4.   Paul, R. L., "Prompt gamma-ray activation analysis for certification of sulfur in fuel oil SRMs," Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 311, 1149-1154 (2017).

   5.   Turkoglu, D., Chen-Mayer, H., Paul, R., and Zeisler, R., "Assessment of PGAA capability for low-level measurements of H in Ti alloys," Analyst, 142, 3822-3829 (2017).

   6.   Christopher, S. J. and Vetter, T. W., "Application of Microwave-Induced Combustion and Isotope Dilution Strategies for Quantification of Sulfur in Coals via Sector-Field Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry," Analytical Chemistry, 88, 4635-4643 (2016).

   7.   Presser, C., Nazarian, A., Bruno, T. J., Murray, J. A., and Molloy, J. L., "Thermochemical Characterization of Bio- and Petro-diesel Fuels Using a Novel Laser-Heating Technique," Energy & Fuels, 29, 5761-5772 (2015).

   8.   Amais, R. S., Long, S. E., Nobrega, J. A., and Christopher, S. J., "Determination of trace sulfur in biodiesel and diesel standard reference materials by isotope dilution sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry," Analytica Chimica Acta, 806, 91-96 (2014).

   9.   Schantz, M. M., Sander, L. C., Sharpless, K. E., Wise, S. A., Yen, J. H., NguyenPho, A., and Betz, J. M., "Development of botanical and fish oil standard reference materials for fatty acids," Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 405, 4531-4538 (2013).

10.   Mann, J. L., Vocke, R. D., and Kelly, W. R., "Determination of low-level (sub-microgram) sulfur concentrations by isotope dilution multi-collector inductively couple plasma mass spectrometry using a 33S spike and internal normalization for mass bias correction," Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 26, 1175-1180 (2012).

11.   Paul, R. L. and Lindstrom, R. M., "Preparation and Certification of Hydrogen in Titanium Alloy Standard Reference Materials," Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A-Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 43A, 4888-4895 (2012).

12.   Rimmer, C. A., Putzbach, K., Sharpless, K. E., Sander, L. C., and Yen, J. H., "Preparation and Certification of Standard Reference Material 3278 Tocopherols in Edible Oils," Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 60, 6794-6798 (2012).

13.   Molloy, J. and Sieber, J., "Assessing microscale heterogeneity in batches of reference materials using microbeam XRF," X-Ray Spectrometry, 40, 306-314 (2011).

14.   Sharpless, K. E., Thomas, J. B., Duewer, D. L., Putzbach, K., Rimmer, C. A., Sander, L. C., Schantz, M. M., Wise, S. A., Yarita, T., and Yen, J. H., "Preparation and characterization of standard reference material 3276, carrot extract in oil," Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 389, 207-217 (2007).

15.   Paul, R. L., "Determination of boron in materials by cold neutron prompt gamma-ray activation analysis," Analyst, 130, 99-103 (2005).

16.   Poster, D. L., Schantz, M. M., and Wise, S. A., "Preparation of Reference Material 8504, transformer oil," Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, 110, 613-615 (2005).

17.   Sieber, J. R., Yu, L. L., Marlow, A. F., and Butler, T. A., "Uncertainty and traceability in alloy analysis by borate fusion and XRF," X-Ray Spectrometry, 34, 153-159 (2005).

18.   Duewer, D. L., Choquette, S. J., O'Neal, L., and Filliben, J. J., "Rare-earth glass reference materials for near-infrared spectrometry: sources of x-axis location variability," Analytica Chimica Acta, 490, 85-98 (2003).

19.   Kelly, W. R., Long, S. E., and Mann, J. L., "Determination of mercury in SRM crude oils and refined products by isotope dilution cold vapor ICP-MS using closed-system combustion," Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 376, 753-758 (2003).

20.   Mann, J. L., Kelly, W. R., and MacDonald, B. S., "Observations of anomalous mass-loss behavior in SRM coals and cokes on drying," Analytical Chemistry, 74, 3585-3591 (2002).

21.   Choquette, S. J., Travis, J. C., O'Neal, L. E., Zhu, C. J., and Duewer, D. L., "A rare-Earth-oxide glass for the wavelength calibration of near-infrared dispersive and fourier-transform spectrometers," Spectroscopy, 16, 14-19 (2001).

22.   Winchester, M. R., Kelly, W. R., Mann, J. L., Guthrie, W. F., MacDonald, B. S., and Turk, G. C., "An alternative method for the certification of the sulfur mass fraction in coal Standard Reference Materials," Fresenius Journal of Analytical Chemistry, 370, 234-240 (2001).

23.   Chen-Mayer, H. H., Mackey, E. A., Paul, R. L., and Mildner, D. F. R., "Quantitative prompt gamma analysis using a focused cold neutron beam," Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 244, 391-397 (2000).

24.   Paul, R. L., "Measurement of phosphorus in metals by RNAA," Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 245, 11-15 (2000).

25.   Mossner, S. G. and Wise, S. A., "Determination of polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles in fossil fuel-related samples," Analytical Chemistry, 71, 58-69 (1999).

26.   Paul, R. L., "Determination of phosphorus in steels by radiochemical neutron activation analysis," Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 234, 55-58 (1998).

27.   Choquette, S. J., Chesler, S. N., Duewer, D. L., Wang, S. W., and Ohaver, T. C., "Identification and quantitation of oxygenates in gasoline ampules using Fourier transform near-infrared and Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy," Analytical Chemistry, 68, 3525-3533 (1996).

28.   Pella, P. A., Marinenko, R. B., Norris, J. A., and Marlow, A., "Apparent Bias in the X-Ray-Fluorescence Determination of Titanium in Selected Nist Srm Low-Alloy Steels," Applied Spectroscopy, 45, 242-245 (1991).

Created September 19, 2023, Updated April 29, 2025