Title: spike
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - spike
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.08047
Status: current

Definition
Material with known quantity values added to an analytical sample.

Notes
1) The material can be a reference material or a certified reference material.
2) The known quantity value is often a fraction or concentration.
3) A spike may be used to estimate the recovered quantity value ratio or compensate for systematic measurement error.
4) "Spike" used as a verb is the addition of a spike to a sample.

Related Term
- recovered quantity value ratio: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/08039

Source
- PAC, 2021, 93, 997. 'Metrological and quality concepts in analytical chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)' on page 1017 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0819)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08047/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08047/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/08047/xml

Citation: Citation: 'spike' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.08047
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-20T03:25:36+00:00