Reference Standard Preparation and Dilution

Reference standards very rarely require any sophisticated pretreatment before they are ready for use, unless they are to be derivatised in some way. In most cases, the reference standard is weighed and quantitatively transferred into a suitable volumetric flask with the aid of the solvent. Any dilutions that are required are performed in the same way as the sample descriptions given previously, again depending on the sample size. 

One major difference with standard solutions is the requirement to construct what is known as a standard or calibration curve. Ihis is a series of standards of known, but different, concentrations that are used to calculate the concentration of the imknown sample solutions. Ihe caUhration curve is a linear regression plot of peak area versus concentration. Ihe closer the regression line is to a straight line (R = 1), the more accurate is the calculation of the imknown samples. 

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