U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Material Measurement Laboratory

Chemical Sciences Division

Projects/Programs

Displaying 76 - 100 of 118
Photograph of an automobile at an emissions testing station, with testing equipment and probe positioned at the car tailpipe.

New Gas Standard Reference Materials to Support the Automotive Industry

Completed
NIST currently supports AIGER members by maintaining reasonable inventories of required gas SRMs that consist of dilute mixtures of key pollutants such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and nitric oxide. Newer vehicles produce lower levels of these pollutants because their engines...
Graphical Depiction of the Microwave Induced Combustion Process for S Determination in Coal SRMs

New Methods for Measurement of Sulfur in Fossil Fuels

Ongoing
NIST has a long history of developing high accuracy analytical methods and SRM materials for trace elements in fossil fuels. NIST has applied the microwave induced combustion methodology in combination with isotope dilution analysis for sulfur determinations, representing the first-reported...
Photo of fuel platform burning on the sea water

NIST Assists in Marine-Related Disaster Response

Ongoing
NIST and the Biospecimen Science Group continue to collaborate with NOAA Fisheries, other federal and state agencies, and non-profit organizations to provide the ability to accurately assess exposure of marine animals to environmental stressors and provide a resource for retrospective analysis of...
NIST Biorepository Freezers

The NIST Biorepository

Ongoing
The NBSB was established in 1979 at NIST in Gaithersburg, MD with a pilot project archiving human liver samples associated with collections through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). New collaborations and banking projects were established including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric...
Montage of photographs depicting eggs, almonds, grain, milk, strawberries, fish, peanuts, and soybeans.

NIST Food Protein Allergen Program

Ongoing
Food allergen management is an increasingly important economic and public health concern; therefore, accurate and reliable allergen measurements are a crucial component of the management pathway. Traditional methods for food allergen detection are based on immunoassay techniques and are linked to a...
photo collage of meats, cheese, eggs, fish, and shellfish

NIST Food Safety Program

Ongoing
The Food Safety Program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides advanced analytical chemistry and quantitative biology to ensure that food is free of contaminants and allergens and is authentic, promoting U.S. manufacturers’ participation in domestic and foreign markets...
AdobeStock_496492664

NIST Ocean Carbon Measurements

Ongoing
NIST is committed to sustaining the quality of ocean carbon measurements by developing capabilities to provide certified reference materials for the ocean carbonate system measurements and by conducting research to understand fundamental elements of the ocean carbon thermodynamic system. NIST Ocean...
Map of the Hawaiian islands showing outlines and major cities of the islands.

NIST U.S. Pacific Islands Program

Completed
To help address environmental research and resource management in the Pacific Islands region, the 111th U.S. Congress directed NIST to "expand its capabilities and resources into the Pacific region through a Pacific Islands component of NIST" and included funding to "expand its biodiversity storage...
NIST PS1

NIST PS1 Primary Standard for quantitative NMR (Benzoic Acid)

Completed
With explicit SI linkage, the overall impact of this apical reference material is profound—this primary standard, as well as forthcoming members of its class, provides technology transfer of chemical purity realization to the commercial sector for characterization of many thousands of organic...
Photograph of the NIST Standard Reference Photometer showing the component modules consisting of optical bench with sample and reference tubes, ozone generator module with controls and tubing, and control module with numeric LED displays.

The NIST Standard Reference Photometer for Ozone Measurement Traceability

Ongoing
The concentration of ozone in the atmosphere continues to be an important global issue both scientifically and politically. Stratospheric ozone protects the Earth from harmful UV radiation, while tropospheric ozoneis a major health concern and contributes to global climate change as a greenhouse gas...
Cannabis

NIST Tools for Cannabis Laboratory Quality Assurance

Ongoing
Since the 1970s, cannabis (marijuana and hemp) and its constituent, Δ 9-tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, have been classified as Schedule I controlled substances. Seized evidence is tested by forensic laboratories, which verify the identity of the plant through macro- and microscopic evaluation and the...
Photograph of hundreds of gas cylinders in a gas storage facility.

NIST Traceable Reference Material Program for Gas Standards

Ongoing
The Gas Mixture SRM, NTRM, and EPA Protocol Programs provide a mechanism to produce needed calibration gas standards with a well-defined traceability. These mixtures are specified in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to calibrate instruments to be used to monitor regulated emissions. The NTRM...
NPS Data Hub

Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) Data Hub

Ongoing
A growing portion of forensic drug laboratory’s workload is the identification of novel psychoactive substances (NPSs), or emerging synthetic drugs (ESDs), presented as exhibit materials after seizure events. A pressing need exists for the rapid characterization of both the active ingredient(s) and...
]: Photograph of two vials containing human milk Standard Reference Materials.

Organic Compounds in Human Serum, Milk, and Urine

Ongoing
Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) have been specifically designed to assist in the quality assurance measurements for compounds found in human fluids. Clinical and biomonitoring laboratories rely on these SRMs for method validation and as control materials during specific analyses. Various human...
Photo montage with images of a sea turtle, sea lion, whale, and dolphins.

Pacific Marine Mammal Health Assessments (PMMHA)

Completed
Pacific Marine Mammal Health Assessments (PMMHA), which began in Fall 2010, are an expansion of NIST marine mammal health assessment collaborations that began in 2002 with bottlenose dolphin wild populations. NIST has a history of involvement in marine mammal health assessment related work...
Photo montage showing fill the airplane with fire-fighting foam, a spilled glass of wine on the tablecloth. Cleaning clothes and furniture from stains, Discarded Fast Food Wrappers Littered on Ground, wateproof jacket with water droplets on it. Jacket using the gore-tex technology.

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)

Ongoing
Perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) constitute a family of compounds that are distinguished by partial or complete fluorination of alkyl hydrocarbons. Dubbed “forever chemicals”, the unique chemistry of PFAS imparts a high level of stability, making the compounds resistant to...

Plasma Process Metrology

Ongoing
Intended Impact The model for rf bias effects that we have developed should make it easier for industry to select optimal operating frequencies and may stimulate the adoption of new methods for RF biasing, such as multiple-frequency bias and non-sinusoidal bias. NIST studies of electrical endpoint...
Stylized illustration of a DNA molecule with associated figures that denote analytical measurements

Potential Primary Measurement Tool for the Quantification of DNA

Ongoing
The biotechnology industry relies primarily on absorbance and fluorescence methodologies to assess DNA mass. However, these measurements can be seriously compromised by impurities in the DNA preparations or state of the DNA itself. These techniques are also not traceable to the SI because the...
Photograph of a long pink flame against a black background, emanating from a torch, with small blue cone near the base of the nozzle.

Real Fuels

Ongoing
The variability of the price of oil, the need for energy efficiency and pollution minimization has led to increasing interest in alternative fuels. These fuels are structurally and compositionally different than the conventional fuels presently used.  Past work on conventional fuels have established...
Graphic depicting the complexity of reclaimed and recaptured plastics. Textiles (arm chair, t-shirt, and spool of yarn), plastic containers (jug, rectangular food containers, and bag), and gaoline pump - along with chemical structures surround a globe with the bottom half covered with three buildings and half of a mechanical gear.

Recaptured and Reclaimed Plastic Measurements

Paused
Plastics are a complex mixture of various polymer types with different chemical structures, shapes, and chemical additives. From microscopic nanoplastics (as small as 1 nm) to large megaplastics (over 1 m), plastic pollution poses significant measurement science challenges. By developing accurate...
Photo showing the production of Salmon Standard Reference Material

Reference Material Production and Support

Ongoing
Bulk Cryogenic Production Large-batch cryogenic reference materials are produced using a specialized Palla VM-KT Vibrating Cryomill. The mill is pre-cooled to cryogenic temperatures using liquid nitrogen. Frozen material is fed through the inlet funnel to a vibrating chamber containing 26 titanium...
Was this page helpful?