Software Package To Facilitate the Preparation of Intermediate-Range Fossil Fuel Standards from Certified Reference Materials

Abstract

A PC software package has been developed in Visual Basic for Applications to assist analysts in mixing fossil fuel reference materials to produce standards of intermediate concentrations. Mixing appropriate reference materials of similar matrices permits the analyst to produce needed standards over a continuous concentration range for analytes of interest. The program automates selection of optimum mixtures and calculates the concentrations and associated uncertainties of analytes in the blends. A graphical interface depicting all possible blends and an automated quality control test to monitor the process for potential problems are included.