ABSTRACT
A fast near real-time monitoring system for hazardous airborne substances, such as chemical warfare agents (CWA) is presented and limits of detection (LOD) for five CW simulants are determined. A tandem thermal desorber (TTD) continuously collects and pre-concentrates air. The pre-concentrated samples are then separated in a fast gas chromatographic (GC) run of 6.9min. and detected by a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS). The GC-TOFMS signals are evaluated using chemometric methods for deconvolution and target identification. The high toxicity of nerve agents requires extremely low detection limits; for some as low as 100 ng/m(3) (10 ppt). The combination of TTD, TOFMS and chemometric data evaluation methods enables the system to fulfill this requirement. Calibration measurements for five different CWA simulants show lower limits of detection in the range of 10 ng/m(3)-60 ng/m(3) (1-11 ppt). In addition, the ability to detect trace concentrations of real CWA is demonstrated with a measurement of 30 pg Sarin on column. Several other real CWA measurements are shown, like sulfur mustard in diesel, lewisite under humid conditions and VX. As part of this work the influence of stationary film thickness on peak tailing of organophosphates is investigated for peak shape optimization.
ABSTRACT
Odour emissions from a composting facility were detected by using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor array. The array consists of six sensor elements, which were coated with different materials. A series of tests under field conditions showed that considerable sensor frequency changes were detected during the compost-turning period. Using principal component analysis, it was found that more than 90% of the data variance could still be explained by use of two principal components.
