Development of bovine serum albumin certified reference material

We present the development process for National Institute of Metrology (NIM) bovine serum albumin (BSA) certified reference material (CRM). Each CRM unit contains about 200 mg of purified BSA. The moisture, ignition residue, molecular weight, and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) purity were analyzed and mass spectrometry based protein identification was carried out to ensure the material was BSA. Both amino acid based isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS) and a purity deduction method were selected for value assignment. The certified value was the average of the IDMS and the purity deduction result. HPLC purity analysis was used to examine the homogeneity and stability of solid BSA CRM. Fifteen units were selected for between-bottle homogeneity examination and seven subsamples from the same bottle were selected for within-bottle homogeneity examination. Statistics showed the CRM passed both the between-bottle and the within-bottle homogeneity examination. The CRM stability under storage conditions (-20 °C) was tested for 18 months and no trend was observed. Uncertainties from the balance, amino acid purity, hydrolysis, method reproducibility, homogeneity, and stability were taken into account in uncertainty evaluation. The final certified value of NIM BSA CRM is (0.963±0.038) g/g.