Role of neutron activation analysis in preparation of reference materials

Basic definitions of reference materials (RM) are given and two main techniques of their preparation are described. The use of neutron activation analysis (NAA) for testing homogeneity of RM and for certifyino. minor and trace element contents is presented in table form. RM for analytical quality control of environmental pollution monitoring, produced mainly by US NBS and IAEA, are taken as examples. It is demonstrated that the application of NAA in RM preparation surpasses the application of other analytical methods. The main resson consists in very good accuracy and precision of trace element determination by the NAA method. (author)