Pesticide, PAH, and Lipid Standards - Your essential resource for Agilent ULTRA chemical standards

Importance of the topic

Certified reference materials for pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and lipids form the backbone of modern analytical workflows in environmental monitoring, food safety, pharmaceutical testing, and industrial quality control. Accurate and traceable standards ensure that analytical results are reliable, reproducible, and comparable across laboratories worldwide.

Objectives and article overview

This document details Agilent’s comprehensive portfolio of neat and solution chemical standards. It outlines:

• The range of certified reference materials (CRM) and reference materials (RM) for pesticides, PAHs, and lipids.
• Quality control validation levels and ISO-accredited laboratory procedures.
• Packaging formats including individual standards, mixed kits, and custom formulations.

Methodology and instrumentation

All chemical standards are produced under Agilent’s ISO 9001 quality management system and in an ISO 17025-accredited laboratory. Certified reference materials follow ISO Guide 34 requirements.

Preparation and Verification:

• Gravimetric preparation with NIST-traceable balances and Class A glassware.
• Purity assessment (95–99 %) and gravimetric concentration assignment (± 0.5 %).
• Homogeneity, stability, and analytical characterization studies to calculate expanded uncertainties at 95 % confidence.

Typical Instrumentation Support:

• Gas chromatographs with ultra-inert flow paths for trace analysis.
• Liquid chromatographs and mass spectrometers for lipid profiling.
• Quality check using Agilent columns, reagents, and sample-preparation products.

Key results and discussion

Quality Control Levels:

• Level I RM (gravimetric): calculated uncertainties, 5 business-day lead time.
• Level II RM (analytical): verified concentrations, 7–10 business-day lead time.
• Level III Certified: expanded uncertainties per ISO Guide 35, 15–20 business-day lead time.

Product Categories:

• Individual neat and solution standards for over 1 000 pesticides, with certificates of analysis.
• PAH standards covering > 40 parent and alkyl-substituted compounds (acenaphthene to decacyclene).
• Lipid standards for straight-chain and branched acids/alcohols (C1–C30), saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, and methyl esters.
• Preconfigured neat and solution kits for common analyte panels.

Custom Solutions:

• Custom-defined reference materials formulated to specific concentrations, matrices, and analyte lists.
• Rapid quote generation and production leveraging 40 years of compatibility and manufacturing data.

Benefits and practical applications

Agilent chemical standards enable laboratories to:

• Validate and calibrate instruments for regulatory compliance (EPA, CLP, GHS-OSHA).
• Perform accuracy checks and linearity studies across workflows in environmental, food, and life sciences.
• Implement robust QA/QC protocols with traceable documentation.

Typical markets served include environmental monitoring, food and beverage testing, pharmaceutical development, industrial process control, and academic research.

Future trends and potential uses

Emerging directions in analytical standards:

• Digital‐native certificates and blockchain-backed traceability for enhanced supply-chain transparency.
• Expanded isotope-labeled and MS-tuning mixtures to support advanced mass-spectrometry applications.
• Customizable microvolume formats to reduce waste and support high-throughput screening.
• Integration with AI-driven method optimization tools to accelerate analytical development.

Conclusion

Agilent’s portfolio of pesticide, PAH, and lipid reference materials delivers unmatched quality, traceability, and flexibility. Leveraging triple ISO certification, comprehensive quality control, and global distribution, these standards underpin accurate and reproducible analytical results for diverse laboratory applications.

Reference

Agilent Technologies. Pesticide, PAH, and Lipid Standards. Whitepaper. March 2019.