A New Interlaboratory Characterisation of Silicon, Rare Earth Elements and Twenty-Two Other Trace Element Concentrations in the Natural River Water Certified Reference Material SLRS-6 (NRC-CNRC)

The natural river water reference material SLRS-6 (NRC-CNRC) is the newest batch of a quality control material routinely used in many international environmental laboratories. This work presents a nine-laboratory compilation of measurements of major and trace element concentrations and their related uncertainties, unavailable in the NRC-CNRC certificate (B, Cs, Li, Ga, Ge, Hf, Nb, P, Rb, Rh, Re, S, Sc, Se, Si, Sn, Th, Ti, Tl, W, Y, Y, Zr and REEs). Measurements were mostly made using inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The results are compared with equivalent data for the last batch of the material, SLRS-5, measured simultaneously with SLRS-6 in this study. In general, very low concentrations, close to the quantification limits, were found in the new batch. The Sr isotopic ratio is also reported.