Development of Novel Mass Spectrometry Instrumentation for Real-Time Monitoring of Trace Levels of Volatile Organic Compounds in Air
EMSL Project ID
2372
Abstract
The major goal of this proposed research is to perform a detailed evaluation of the PTR-MS technique. Dr. Mike Alexander, a researcher at Pacific Northwest Labs, recently developed the first PTR-MS system in the U.S. I plan to travel to his labs and work there for several weeks over the summer and fall of 2002 to learn more about the instrument, its construction, and its operation. A second goal for this research is to fully characterize and test the PTR-MS instrument for the analysis of a number of target compounds in air. I already have the capability and expertise for generating highly precise concentrations of gas standard mixtures, and will use this for evaluating the performance specifications of the PTR-MS instrument. Once this is done, the instrument can be applied to a limited number of air monitoring applications. One such application is monitoring VOCs of interest in the atmosphere, including common aromatic hydrocarbons and MTBE from gasoline. The third goal for this collaboration is to then write proposals to NSF and NASA for the construction, testing, and application of a PTR-MS instrument at SFSU. This will involve discussions with former collaborators in the Earth Systems Science Division and Atmospheric Chemistry Branch at NASA Ames Research Center.
Project Details
Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2002-07-01
End Date
2004-07-15
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator