Fast Sensing of Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) Vapors Using a Hand-Held Ion Mobility Spectrometer with Nonradioactive Ionization Source

Abstract

Sensitive real-time detection of vapors produced by toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) always represents a stringent priority. Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is definitely a TIC, being widely used in various industries and as an insecticide; it is a reactive, very flammable, and highly toxic compound that affects the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, eyes, nose, throat, and also has systemic effects. Moreover, HCN is considered a blood chemical warfare agent. This study was focused toward quick detection and quantification of HCN in air using time-of-flight ion mobility spectrometry (ToF IMS). Results obtained clearly indicate that IMS can rapidly detect HCN at sub-ppmv levels in air. Ion mobility spectrometric response was obtained in the negative ion mode and presented one single distinct product ion, at reduced ion mobility K0 of 2.38 cm2 V−1 s−1. Our study demonstrated that by using a miniaturized commercial IMS system with nonradioactive ionization source model LCD-3.2E (Smiths Detection Ltd., London, UK), one can easily measure HCN at concentrations of 0.1 ppmv (0.11 mg m−3) in negative ion mode, which is far below the OSHA PEL-TWA value of 10 ppmv. Measurement range was from 0.1 to 10 ppmv and the estimated limit of detection LoD was ca. 20 ppbv (0.02 mg m−3).

Detection of Chemical Warfare Agents with a Miniaturized High-Performance Drift Tube Ion Mobility Spectrometer Using High-Energetic Photons for Ionization

“…We complete our study by examining precursors and/or simulants of CWAs as well as common interfering substances in order to estimate the extent of false positive alarms. As explained above, several factors affect the reduced ion mobility K 0 and usually lead to variations of approximately ±0.02 cm 2 / 25 manufacturer 33 Yamaguchi et al 34 Yang et al 35 Seto et al 29 Satoh et al 14 Bocos-Bintintan et al 15 device mini-IMS RAID- The ion polarity is given in brackets.K 0 values of this work are determined based on 1000 averaged ion mobility spectra. Vs or ±2% in the K 0 value of IMS-based instruments.…”

Determination of Cyanide in Blood for Forensic Toxicology Purposes—A Novel Nci Gc-Ms/Ms Technique

“…The variation coefficient for the analyzed reference samples was not higher than permissible 20%. Obtained results showed that the method allows to differentiate nominal and elevated cyanide levels since the potentially toxic range is concentration 500 ng/mL–1 μg/mL [ 11 , 26 ].…”

“…The blood samples were analyzed in quadruplicate and an average concentration was 21.54 μg/mL (%RSD = 2.16), which is above the methods ULOQ (10 μg/mL). The determined cyanide in the blood proves a lethality of a suspected poisoning case as the concentrations above 2 μg/mL are generally considered as potentially life-threatening [ 26 ]. Besides, the white briquettes collected at the scene of the incident were evaluated qualitatively by preparing solutions at a concentration of 10 μg/mL and applying the described technique, they were confirmed as a cyanide salt.…”

Tehnologije koje se primjenjuju za terensku detekciju bojnih otrova: I. dio – Kolorimetrija i spektrometrija ionske pokretljivosti

“…time of flight ion mobility spectrometry), u negativnom ionskom modu. 69 Nakon ionizacije nastali ioni u pulsevima putuju kroz područje za odjeljivanje iona na koje djeluje homogeno električno polje te dolazi do skretanja i odvajanja iona zbog razlike u njihovoj pokretljivosti na koju utječu masa, veličina i oblik iona. Nakon odvajanja ioni dolaze na Fardayevu ploču (slika 10a).…”