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A new membrane inlet interface of a vacuum ultraviolet lamp ionization miniature mass spectrometer for on‐line rapid measurement of volatile organic compounds in air
Author(s) -
Hou Keyong,
Wang Junde,
Li Haiyang
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/rcm.3250
Subject(s) - chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , mass spectrometry , toluene , benzene , ultraviolet , ionization , krypton , ozone , xenon , spectrometer , chromatography , optoelectronics , optics , ion , organic chemistry , physics
A novel membrane inlet interface coupled to a single‐photon ionization (SPI) miniature time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer has been developed for on‐line rapid measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light source for SPI was a commercial krypton discharge lamp with photon energy of 10.6 eV and photon flux of 10 10 photons/s. The experimental results showed that the sensitivity was 5 times as high as obtained with the traditional membrane inlet. The enrichment efficiency could be adjusted in the range of 10 to 20 times for different VOCs when a buffer cell was added to the inlet interface, and the memory effect was effectively eliminated. A detection limit as low as 25 parts‐per‐billion by volume (ppbv) for benzene has been achieved, with a linear dynamic range of three orders of magnitude. The rise times were 6 s, 10 s and 15 s for benzene, toluene and p ‐xylene, respectively, and the fall time was only 6 s for all of these compounds. The analytical capacity of this system was demonstrated by the on‐line analysis of VOCs in single puff mainstream cigarette smoke, in which more than 50 compounds were detected in 2 s. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.