Introduction

We hereby announce the 6th Inter-laboratory Comparison on Water Quality Analysis, which is focused on the Proficiency Testing of Antimony and Nitrate Nitrogen in Water. This activity is open to academic, regulatory as well as commercial laboratories world-wide, especially those from developing and emerging countries. The organizer of this project is CAS-TWAS Centre of Excellence for Water and Environment (CAS-TWAS CEWE) and Water Quality Analysis Laboratory, which both are established at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). This project is supported by the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People's Republic of China (CNCA), the World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS) and the Alliance of International Science Organizations(ANSO).

The final report will be available to the participants by April 2025. All the participants who obtained satisfied results will receive a certificate of participation in the activity.

Participants

We encourage all laboratories working in this field to participate and assess their analytical performance. To do this, participants are requested to completely fill out the Registration Form and mark the desired samples that you intend to determine.  

Test Samples

The test samples for Antimony are in concentrations of 0.01-0.30 mg/L with 5% HNO₃ as matrix.

The test samples for Nitrate Nitrogen are in concentrations of 1.00-10.00 mg/L with H₂O as matrix.

Samples will be distributed to the participating laboratories by international courier service.

Please Note:

In order to avoid delay or retention of the samples at customs, please inform us if there are import restrictions in your country for any of the samples.

Instructions for analysis and reporting

Further detailed instructions and reporting forms will be sent by e-mail simultaneously with the dispatch of the samples in September 2024.

In short, the participating laboratories should:

· pay attention to the logistics information of samples in order to avoid retention or loss

· use your own standard operation procedures for pre-treatment  and instrumental determination

· use your own reference standards for identification and quantification 

· report one single concentration for each testing sample in each water matrix

Time Schedule

Participation Fee

The participation fee for any combination of the analytes in one item is free.

All recipients of this invitation are sincerely welcome to participate in the Inter-laboratory Comparison, and are encouraged to spread the activity to other laboratories that may be interested!

Co-ordinating Group

E-mail Address

For all enquiries by e-mail, please use cas_twas@rcees.ac.cn.

Postal Address:

Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences

18# ShuangQing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, P.R.China, 100085