Quantitative analysis of benzene, toluene, and m‐xylene with the use of a UV–ion mobility spectrometer

Abstract

An ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) equipped with a 10.6 eV low‐pressure gas‐discharge lamp usually used in photoionization detectors for gas chromatographic applications was developed for the continuous detection of benzene, toluene, and m‐xylene. To improve the resolution of the IMS for single substances a customized IMS with a doubled drift tube length was built. The responses of both IMS (drift tube lengths of 6 and 12 cm) to the compounds selected were determined and compared. The advantages of the combination of multi‐capillary columns with IMS are discussed with the aim of achieving further enhancements to the resolution of the instrument. This coupling leads to a significant increase in the scope of application of ion mobility spectrometry for environmental applications. The influence of intermolecular charge‐transfer reactions on the peak can be reduced and more complex matrices considered. The presented three‐dimensional correlation supports the interpretation of the spectra acquired from the mixtures. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Field Analyt Chem Technol 4: 157–169, 2000

An assessment of sensing technologies for the detection of clandestine methamphetamine drug laboratories

“…IMS is a highly sensitive technique that can be used to analyze the composition of gas mixtures, including many of the target gases such as ammonia, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen iodide, iodine, phosphine, acetic anhydride, hexane, methylamine, and more. IMS detectors use either a radioactive or chemical ionization source [84]. Practical challenges of IMS include competitive ion/ molecule reactions with matrix molecules, susceptibility to contamination, and problems with low temperature operation [85].…”

Acetone and perdeuterated acetone in UV-IMS

“…Furthermore, increasing resolution helps improving SNR and thus detection limits [10]. Besides APCI, photoionization sources at atmospheric pressure (APPI) are also used in IMS for substances difficult to ionize by APCI, or to reduce chemical cross sensitivities possible in APCI [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The ion mobility can be theoretically estimated from the ions' structure and mass [19][20][21] or be calculated from experimental IMS measurements.…”

Review on Ion Mobility Spectrometry. Part 1: current instrumentation

“…Other ionization methods are Atmospheric Pressure Photo Ionization (APPI) 66 based on ultraviolet light (UV) 67 . APPI will ionize those molecules with an ionization potential lower than the energy of photons emitted.…”