One of the elements characterising the IUCLID 5 Substance dataset is its relation to a Reference substance: while a dataset contains information on the intrinsic properties of a specific substance and its constituents, a Reference substance holds information on the identity of specific substances and their constituents.
The Reference substance is a specific IUCLID element for storing identification information such as chemical names, EC and CAS numbers or other identity codes, molecular and structural information, etc. This concept was developed in order to avoid re-typing or manual copy and paste and, in general, to make sure that re-useable key data are entered only once, centrally managed and updated.
Caution
IUCLID5 Reference substance is NOT related to the term reference substance as used in physical and chemical tests.
The Reference substance has no use on its own but is instead used in relation to a Substance dataset to specify the identification of the substance and of its constituents:
or to a Mixture dataset to specify the identification of the components of the mixture:
Caution
In case of a Mixture dataset, the Reference substance is used to identify the components of the mixture and not the mixture itself.