Effect of NaCl and HCl concentrations on primary pH measurement for the certification of standard materials

pH is an important parameter to control the production of food, medicine, petrochemical products and others. Thus, standard reference materials used to calibrate pH meters are necessary to guarantee reliability of the measurements. The Chemical Metrology Division (Dquim) of the National Metrology Institute of Brazil (Inmetro) has as one of its missions the certification of standard reference materials. In the case of pH, it will be done by the pH primary measurement system of Inmetro, in operation at Dquim since 2003. The buffer solution of nominal pH value equal to 6.865 will be the first to be certified. The study of some measurement parameters has already been accomplished, and will lead to the improvement of the primary pH measurement. In this paper, the effect of NaCl and HCl concentrations on the primary pH measurement is discussed, based on the results obtained by Inmetro in the regional comparison SIM 8.11P.