Standard Reference Material 2881 - National Institute of Standards ...

12. Discussion of Certified ValuesThe concentration β i for each oligomer (with associated uncertainties) for theOctylA polystyrene MMS converts it into SRM 2881 with a certified MMD. All Type Buncertainty is small compared to the two forms of Type A uncertainty, gravimetric andablation. Here we consider the issue of why the Type B uncertainty is small compared tothe Type A. In earlier SRM work using light scattering to determine the M w orosmometry to determine the M n , we generally were able to design the experiment so TypeA uncertainty was comparable or somewhat smaller then the Type B uncertainty. Herethis is certainly not the case. We may take it as lack of control over some parts of theexperiment—in particular the sample preparation. The sample preparation is done in away hoping to obtain a good sampling of the MMD of the original polymer by the use ofa spraying technique where it is expected that that the rapid droplet evaporation willallow us to obtain uniformity in the sample surface. But the electrospray may easily beaffected by a variety of things we did not control—humidity in room during samplepreparation and subtle changes in the electrospray cone character leading to uncontrolleddroplet size. Furthermore, the ablation process is a nonequilibrium event; making thechemistry of the plume is itself a variable process. Any expectations of high-precisionrepeatability are unlikely.There is a second source of Type A uncertainty. There is the source from therepeatability of the fundamental data, i.e., in β i , as discussed above. However, there isalso a source of uncertainty in the correction term for Q/k 0 . Table 3 gives the values ofthe mean value of the experimental β i the experimental fraction of the signal in peak ofmass m i , with its statistical standard deviation (the contribution to the Type Auncertainty). It is unclear that these are independent uncertainties but having no otherknowledge we must assume they are independent and add them in the usual way by usingthe sum of squares. (The reader is reminded that there are no contributions from the TypeB uncertainties because they are so small.) Table 1 offers a listing of the contributions tothe uncertainty from all sources. It is unclear that these are independent uncertainties buthaving no other knowledge we must assume they are independent and add them in theusual way by using the sum of squares. Table 3 offers the MMD for the polymer as35