Performance evaluation of a miniature ion mobility spectrometer drift cell for application in hand-held explosives detection ion mobility spectrometers

Abstract

The implementation of hand-held ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) requires the development and evaluation of miniature drift cells providing high sensitivity while maintaining reasonable resolution. This manuscript describes the construction of a miniature IMS designed for such an application and its characterization by evaluation of the detection limits and resolution of the system with seven explosive compounds including trinitrotoluene (TNT), cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX), pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), 2,4,6-trinitrophenyl-N-methylnitramine (Tetryl), nitroglycerin (NG), 2,4-dinitrotoluene (2,4 DNT), and 2,6-dinitrotoluene (2,6 DNT).

Review on Ion Mobility Spectrometry. Part 2: hyphenated methods and effects of experimental parameters

“…Babis et al . 106 obtained a R p /L of 3.2 cm −1 (for a length L of 4.65cm and a R p of 15), although different in design Xu et al . 112 obtained a R p /L of 3.4 cm −1 (for a length L of 3.50cm and a R p of 12).…”

“…The potential, however, for IMS technology to produce efficient miniature DTIMS (< centimetre scale) instruments is limited due to the rapid diffusion of ions in gases. Nevertheless, several recent attempts have been made to miniaturize the IMS devices 106–113 . One method of comparing their efficiency is to use resolving power/length ( R p /L ) 114 .…”

Portable Planar DMA: Development and Tests

“…Due to the much higher mobility of ions, smaller drift regions are required, which greatly helps to facilitate miniaturization. Examples that have achieved this to such a degree as to be compatible with a handheld device include both planar (Spangler 2000;Zimmermann et al 2007Zimmermann et al , 2008 and cylindrical (Babis et al 2009) geometries. While interesting in their own right and useful for the applications they were designed for, none of these devices fit the requirements for a high-resolution portable device with a wide enough size range to cover most aerosol particle applications.…”

Ion spectrometric detection technologies for ultra‐traces of explosives: A review

“…The lower ion throughput caused by smaller drift tube and lower source activity was compensated by amplifier leading to higher sensitivity and equal resolution compared to current bench-top devices. The detection limits of the explosives were reported to be at levels below their room temperature vapor pressures (Babis et al, 2009). Figure 5 depicts measured chromatograms of various explosives.…”