Constancy of a property of a material over time.
Notes: - A material is said to be stable with respect to a specified property if its measured or examined property value does not fall outside a specified interval during storage under specified conditions over a specified period of time.
- A reference material is assessed for the stability of an embodied property under conditions of transport ("short-term stability") and storage ("long-term stability").
- The variation of the property value over time adds a contribution to the uncertainty budget or the examination uncertainty, as applicable. Regarding the assessment of stability of the reference material, detailed guidance is given in ISO Guide 35.
- The term "stability" is also used for stability of a measuring instrument or process (see control limit).
Source:
PAC, 2021, 93, 997. 'Metrological and quality concepts in analytical chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)' on page 1009 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0819)