The International Database for Certified Reference Materials (COMAR)

Certified reference materials (CRMs) are standard materials with certified quantity values，playing important roles in development and assessment of analytical methods, qualitative and quantitative analysis, mineral exploration, arbitration inspection, quality supervision and inspection. The Code d′Indexation des Matériaux de Référence (COMAR), founded in the 1980s, is now the largest international database for CRMs. It contains over 10200 CRMs provided by 274 institutions from 25 member countries so as to integrate superior resources. The CRMs′ quantity, classification and development variation, as well as the current research situation of CRMs in member countries such as the European Union, America, China, Japan and Australia are presented in detail. Countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and Germany developed the CRMs research early, and kept ranking international top with high research level. Asian countries like China and Japan started CRMs research late, but developed fast, and now become the top two CRMs providers in COMAR with the respective amount of CRMs up to 1194 and 1456 by August 2013. Since the establishment of COMAR, CRMs in three traditional application fields including industries, non-ferrous, and physical properties have been a large proportion of the total quantity of CRMs in COMAR, which is up to 50%. Among them, the field of industries had the largest quantity of CRMs, accounting for 19%. While the fields of organics-biology and clinic had the least share of CRMs, accounting for only 7% and 3%, respectively. Along with increasing social demand, the fields of biology and medicine, together with quality of life have become the hotspots of current CRMs′ development. This article also highlights that, instead of the traditional fields of ferrous, non-ferrous and physical properties, the development focus of CRMs research will turn to the fields of food safety, environmental protection, climate change, clinical medicine, pharmaceutical industry, and bio-energy in the future. Accordingly, the preparation, characterization, and uncertainty assessment of CRMs will face new technical challenges.