STANDARD REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE POLYMERS INDUSTRY.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) provides science, industry, and government with a central source of well-characterized materials certified for chemical composition or for some chemical or physical property. These materials are designated Standard Reference Materials^® (SRMs) and are used to calibrate measuring instruments, to evaluate methods and systems, or to produce scientific data that can be referred readily to a common base. In this paper, we discuss the history of polymer based SRMs, their current status, and challenges and opportunities to develop new standards to address industrial measurement challenges.