Reference materials are also known as "chemical weights"
Tianjin Port explosion, melamine, clenbuterol, rice cadmium exceeding the standard... Behind the endless major emergencies, the hidden culprits are actually dangerous chemicals, and accurate detection of their component content has become the basic technical guarantee for controlling major risks. As the most effective tool for establishing chemical measurement, reference materials can ensure the accuracy and traceability of test results, provide comparison reference, and ensure that the measurement results are consistent and comparable, so reference materials are also called "chemical weights". Recently, the reporter interviewed Li Hongmei, director of the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Metrology, to see how much we know about "chemical weights" in addition to the above content.
Li Hongmei, who is currently the director of the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Metrology Sciences, has been dedicated to the research of stoichiometry technology and reference materials in the fields of food safety, public health, forensic science and clinical medicine since graduation. Director Li is currently a member of the International Standards Organization Standard Materials Technical Committee (ISO/REMCO), the International Metrology Committee Quality Advisory Committee (BIPM/CCQM), and the National Accreditation Service (CNAS) Laboratory Technical Committee. He serves as the deputy chairperson of the China Clinical Medicine Traceability Metrology Technical Committee, the secretary general of the National Instrumentation Analysis and Testing Standardization Technical Committee (TC481), and the editorial board of'Quality Assurance and Acreditation ', "Journal of Analytical Testing" and other journals.
Over the past 30 years, Director Li has been responsible for the national science and technology support plan, basic conditions platform, basic special projects, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, international science and technology cooperation projects, etc.; developed and applied for more than 100 national standard materials; published more than 80 academic papers, of which more than 20 are included in SCI, published 4 monographs and translations; won 2 national science and technology progress awards (ranked 1st and 2nd each), 11 provincial and ministerial awards, and 3 awards from China Association for Analysis and Testing.
In addition, Director Li also led 4 international comparisons in the field of organic component analysis, led the team to carry out the mutual recognition of our country's organic pure substance measurement capabilities, and continued to maintain the international leading position in the mutual recognition of national source measurement standards in this field. It is worth mentioning that the "fast, simple, economical and accurate" national standard for rapid detection of melamine in fresh milk developed by Director Li and his team has made positive contributions to the solution of major national emergencies.
The reference material team of the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Metrology, led by Director Li, consists of more than 20 researchers, including 6 researchers and 15 associate researchers, mainly engaged in analytical technology and applied research in the fields of stoichiometry, reference materials, and organic. The team has conquered key technologies such as high-purity material preparation, purification, complex matrix sample processing, and high-accuracy valuation; and through system design and integration innovation, the development of urgently needed standard materials provides a traceable high-accuracy measurement standard for food safety, prohibited drugs, clinical, environmental protection and other national major areas of measurement; through traceability technology research, an innovative set of quality balance method for the determination of pure substance uncertainty assessment technology has been established, and the accuracy has reached the international leading level; comprehensively improved the development technology level of high-purity reagents and high-purity compounds for trace analysis in our country, and the product quality has reached or exceeded the international advanced level.
Internationally, it broke the long-term international comparison situation dominated by European and American countries, and for the first time led the international key comparison of organic pure substances and complex matrix organic components measurement, gaining praise from its peers internationally. The current vice chairperson of the International Committee for Weights and Measures, the US Deputy Secretary of Commerce, and the president of NIST, Dr. Willie E. May, evaluated the team led by Director Li as "one of the best teams in the world".
In the past 10 years, the team has undertaken more than 10 national key projects involving the research of reference materials, the development of high-accuracy methods, and the development of new instruments. Among them, the two achievements of "Development and Application of Reference Materials for the Measurement of Chemical Composition of Hazardous Substances" and "Research on Urgent Reference Materials for National Chemical Measurement Traceability" won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, "Development of Reference Materials for Sequential Extraction of Heavy Metals in Soil and Sediments", "Clinical Reference Materials for Cholesterol, Uric Acid, and Urea for Clinical Testing", and "Research on 22 Reference Materials for Water Quality Monitoring Solutions" won provincial and ministerial awards.
The Institute of Metrology's persistent pursuit of stoichiometry and reference materials has also paid off in many fields such as food, forensic science, and clinical stoichiometry. In the field of food safety testing, the Institute of Metrology is committed to the research of measurement technology and reference materials for harmful residues in food. The developed standard materials for food testing have served most domestic testing laboratories, met the needs of food testing traceability, and ensured the accuracy and reliability of the value. In the field of forensic science, the Chinese Institute of Metrology and the Physical Evidence Appraisal Center of the Ministry of Public Security jointly signed the "Cooperation Agreement on Court Scientific Reference Materials and Traceability Assurance", which began the independent research on the preparation and traceability of reference materials in the field of forensic science in our country. Gradually solve the problem of drug standard material preparation and traceability, and vigorously guide the application of high-accuracy valuation technology in the determination of court scientific pure In the field of clinical stoichiometry research, he led the core team to develop standard substances including small molecules and macromolecules, covering the diagnosis of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, tumor diagnosis and diabetes and other major disease diagnostic markers.
Our country has the voice over chemical measurement
The development of reference materials in our country is highly concerned by the state. "Research and formulate high-precision and high-stability measurement standards and reference material system" has been included in the Outline of the National Medium and Long-term Science and Technology Development Plan (2006-2020) and the State Council Metrology Development Plan (2013-2020). Director Li introduced: "In recent years, the Metrology Institute's efforts in the field of reference materials have also achieved certain results. Up to now, the total number of certified reference materials in our country has nearly 8,800, covering 13 fields such as steel and chemical industry; the completed national reference material resource sharing platform is one of the 23 national science and technology platforms. It has basically established high-accuracy determination technologies for inorganic, organic and macromolecular standard materials such as mass balance method, nuclear magnetic resonance method, coulometry method, gravimetric method, and isotope dilution mass spectrometry. The atomic weight measurement values of 9 elements such as Sb, Eu, and Se have been adopted as new international standards. The standard materials and related achievements have strongly promoted the development of food safety, energy environment, biomedicine, public safety and other industries. "
What is the international status of our country's reference material research? Director Li used exact figures to prove the strong strength of our country's reference material research field: "The Chinese Academy of Metrology Science has participated in more than 180 international comparisons on behalf of the country. Since 2010, it has participated in 89 international comparisons, of which 24 are leading important international measurement comparisons. At present, in the (BIPM) Key Comparison Mutual Recognition Database (KCDB), the field of chemical biology has achieved more than 630 international mutual recognition of detection and calibration capabilities (CMC), and the number of mutual recognition ranks among the first echelon in the world, ranking second. Our country ranks first, second, second and third in the number of mutual recognition capabilities in the fields of high-purity substances, inorganic solutions, organic solutions and food, forming international advantages and expanding international influence. In the purity of high-purity substances, agricultural and veterinary drugs and nutritional functional components in food, persistent organic pollutants in soil, harmful substances in electronic and electrical products, clinical diagnostic markers and other key areas of measurement, it has maintained the same level as similar laboratories in developed countries, ensuring the reliability of traceability of chemical measurement values in our country, and has the voice over the world. " This has also created more opportunities for high-level international cooperation for the Institute of Metrology: the international scientific and technological cooperation project with BIPM has been successfully carried out, and the two sides have successfully led the completion of the first international comparison of macromolecules, and will continue to carry out cooperative research; at the request of the African Regional Metrology Organization, the two sides plan to carry out cooperative research in the field of food safety, and jointly lead the international comparison and technical training of a series of mycotoxins, in order to achieve technical assistance to less developed countries and regions in the field of food safety measurement capabilities.
The Institute of Metrology has signed international cooperation agreements with 16 countries or regions including the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Australia, established an international cooperation framework agreement platform, cooperated with international organizations, and interacted with foreign advanced R & D institutions for reference materials. Bilateral/multilateral technical cooperation and a series of all-round cooperation have realized the transformation from passive to active participation in international organization activities, and enhanced our country's research strength in the cutting-edge technology of reference materials. In terms of talent training and output, Director Li introduced: "The Institute of Metrology has gathered a R & D team of reference materials with reasonable knowledge structure, international influence and competitiveness, ensuring the high quality of scientific research work. At present, more than ten people from the Institute of Chemistry of the Institute of Metrology have been sent to the United States, the United Kingdom and other advanced countries to carry out cooperative research, and many technical experts have also undertaken important work in international organizations and bilateral and multilateral international cooperation. "
Polarization challenges lead to new development trends
Regression analytical instruments, what is the relationship between the research of reference materials and the analytical instrument industry? Director Li answered our doubts: "Reference materials are essential basic materials in the development of core components and complete machines of analytical instruments, performance testing and verification, quality assurance and application. At the same time, analytical instruments are also the premise of the development and development of reference materials. Therefore, the two are interdependent and develop together." The rapid development of analytical instruments has promoted the rapid development and improvement of stoichiometry technology in terms of morphology, parameters, values, and uncertainties. On the other hand, the development and application of various new principles and high-performance analytical instruments have put forward new requirements for stoichiometry technology and standard materials, such as ultra-trace, multi-properties, new parameters, new models, and limit conditions, bringing new opportunities and challenges for stoichiometry technology.
At the same time, the rapid development of science and technology has also brought polarized development challenges to global standard material research: on the one hand, the basic frontier research challenges the technical depth of standard material research, the analysis object changes from the total amount of elements to isotope composition and element morphology, and expands from traditional small molecules to macromolecules and morphology, structure, activity and function. On the other hand, the application of technology research challenges the breadth of standard material research technology. The demand for standard materials changes from traditional industrial fields to strategic emerging industries such as biology, new energy, energy conservation and environmental protection, and people's livelihood fields.
In this context, a new development trend has emerged in the research of global reference materials. First, the research and development technologies such as the preparation, determination and uncertainty assessment of reference materials continue to develop: Europe, America and other countries are carrying out research on the green preparation technology of reference materials to explore the instability of reference materials, crystalline water and solvent residues. The development of isotope dilution, single molecule and other biomacromolecular component measurement reference technology and hydrogen-deuterium exchange dynamic structure analysis technology has laid a technical foundation for the comprehensive determination of the content, structure and activity of protein drug reference materials such as therapeutic antibodies. Bayesian, Monte Carlo and other new uncertainty assessment techniques and statistical models are gradually applied. The second is the development of the value characteristics of standard materials from single characteristics to multi-characteristics, constant, trace to trace, ultra-trace, total to form, and inorganic components to organic and biological characteristics to meet the needs of more and more diverse applications.
In the face of new challenges and trends, Director Li firmly stated: "During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, we will be committed to building the core measurement capabilities of international mutual recognition of chemical measurement and the core service capabilities of national standard materials; focus on conquering high-accuracy measurement technologies such as macromolecules and aggregates in the field of life sciences, the structure-activity relationship between composition, structure and biological activity, clinical testing, and the establishment of a quantity traceability system in the field of precision medicine. Focusing on the national strategic needs, we will focus on conducting metrology research, high-accuracy measurement method research, and reference material research in the fields of basic chemometry, high-purity substances, food safety, environmental monitoring, clinical testing, industrial products, and consumer products. By actively participating in international comparison and international cooperation, we will achieve international equivalence and mutual recognition, and provide measurement results for the society Traceability sharing service for "more accurate, more efficient and more extensive" measurement. "
