Reference gas

REFERENCE GAS

The Reference Gas Laboratory is responsible for the production, maintenance and development of the gas mixtures national primary standards, as well as the development and implementation of new measurement methods and capabilities.

Within the scope of its activity it aims to:

Preparation and certification of reference gas mixtures (ISO 6142-1 and ISO 6143);
To support the gas analyzer laboratory and the alcohol testing laboratory;
Participation and coordination of R&D projects and of interlaboratorial comparisons;
To support the legal metrology.

Get to know the ongoing projects here.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

The areas of expertise of the Reference Gases Laboratory, for which it has international recognition, are:

- Preparation and certification of primary gas mixture standards (PSM) in the measurement ranges of 10^-6mol / mol and 10^-2 mol / mol according to ISO 6142-1 and ISO 6143.
- Preparation and certification of primary reference mixtures (PRM) in the measurement ranges of 10^-6 mol / mol and 10^-2 mol / mol according to ISO 6142-1 and ISO 6143.
- Preparation and certification of certified reference mixtures (CRM) in the measurement ranges of 10^-6 mol / mol and 10^-2 mol / mol according to ISO 6143 and ISO 17034.

TRACEABILITY

The mole, symbol mol, is the SI unit of amount of substance.

One mole contains exactly 6.022 140 76 x 10²³ elementary entities. This number is the fixed numerical value of the Avogadro constant, N_A, when expressed in the unit mol^–1 and is called the “Avogadro number”.

The amount of substance, symbol n, of a system is a measure of the number of specified elementary entities. An elementary entity may be an atom, a molecule, an ion, an electron, any other particle or specified group of particles.

The measurements traceability is done to national and international standards, guaranteed through the use of traceable equipment to the SI units and by the adoption of preparation and certification of gas mixtures methods in agreement with the applicable international standards.

The accuracy of the measurements made is proven through the participation in projects and in international comparisons, and it is demonstrated by the acceptance and inclusion in the Capacities of Measurement and Calibration (CMC) BIPM database and also with the international equivalence of measurements through the Mutual Recognition Arrangement (CIPM-MRA), for IPQ gas mixtures.

External document:

Mise en pratique for the definition of the mole in the SI