Abstract
The need for rapid and accurate measurement of trace concentrations of compounds present in ambient humid air has led to construction of specialised mass spectrometers based on the Selected Ion Flow Tube Mass Spectrometry, SIFT-MS, its drift-tube variant, SIFDT-MS, and Proton Transfer Mass Spectrometry, PTR-MS. It is currently possible to analyse vapours of volatile organic compounds, VOC, and other gases including ammonia, hydrogen sulphide and hydrogen cyanide present in concentrations even below a part per billion by volume, ppbv. The reagent ions are formed in electrical discharges and their ion-molecule reactions with sampled analyte molecules take place at pressures of 1–2 mbar. As an example of analytical use, SIFT-MS coupled with the Laser Induced Breakdown, LIB, technique was used to analyse stable gaseous products from the decomposition of pure explosive compounds HMX, RDX, PETN and TNT and from 38 types of commercial explosive and propellant mixtures. Decomposition products analysed included NH3, HCN, HCHO, NO, NO2, HONO, HNO3, C2H5OH, CH3CN, DMNB, C2H6CO, C2H2 and nitroglycerine. For four selected explosives, it was found that the end products of the microscopic LIB laboratory tests correspond well to the composition of fumes from realistic explosions of 0.5 kg charges.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Pu F et al (2019) Direct sampling mass spectrometry for clinical analysis. Analyst 144:1034–1051
Covington JA et al (2015) The application of FAIMS gas analysis in medical diagnostics. Analyst 14:6775–6781
Baumbach JI (2009) Ion mobility spectrometry coupled with multi-capillary columns for metabolic profiling of human breath. J Breath Res 3:034001
Davies SJ et al (2014) Breath analysis of ammonia, volatile organic compounds and deuterated water vapor in chronic kidney disease and during dialysis. Bioanalysis 6:843–857
Španěl P, Smith D (2011) Volatile compounds in health and disease. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 14:455–460
Finamore P et al (2019) Breath analysis in respiratory diseases: state-of-the-art and future perspectives. Expert Rev Mol Diagn 19:47–61
Garcia-Gomez D et al (2016) Secondary electrospray ionization coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry reveals tryptophan pathway metabolites in exhaled human breath. Chem Commun 52:8526–8528
Ke MF et al (2019) Generating supercharged protein ions for breath analysis by extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Anal Chem 91:3215–3220
Anttalainen O et al (2018) Differential mobility spectrometers with tuneable separation voltage - theoretical models and experimental findings. Trac-Trends Anal Chem 105:413–423
Matyáš R, Pachman J (2013) Primary explosives. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg
Politzer P, Murray JS (2003) Energetic materials. Part 2. Detonation, combustion. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam
Civiš M et al (2011) Laser ablation of FOX-7: proposed mechanism of decomposition. Anal Chem 83:1069–1077
Cremers DA, Radziemski LJ (2013) Handbook of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, 2nd edn. Blackwell Science Publishing, Oxford
Sovová K et al (2010) A study of the composition of the products of laser-induced breakdown of hexogen, octogen, pentrite and trinitrotoluene using selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry and UV-Vis spectrometry. Analyst:1106–1114
Civis S et al (2016) Selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry analyses of laser decomposition products of a range of explosives and ballistic propellants. Anal Methods 8:1145–1150
Lehký L, Kyncl M (2008) Projekt report. FT-TA4/124: research of new methods of detection of explosives
Španěl P, Smith D (1996) Selected ion flow tube: a technique for quantitative trace gas analysis of air and breath. Med Biol Eng Comput 34:409–419
Španěl P et al (2006) A general method for the calculation of absolute trace gas concentrations in air and breath from selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry data. Int J Mass Spectrom 249:230–239
Smith D, Španěl P (2005) Selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) for on-line trace gas analysis. Mass Spectrom Rev 24:661–700
Smith D et al (2009) Ionic diffusion and mass discrimination effects in the new generation of short flow tube SIFT-MS instruments. Int J Mass Spectrom 281:15–23
Dryahina K, Španěl P (2005) A convenient method for calculation of ionic diffusion coefficients for accurate selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry, SIFT-MS. Int J Mass Spectrom 244:148–154
Španěl P, Smith D (2001) Quantitative selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry: the influence of ionic diffusion and mass discrimination. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 12:863–872
Dryahina K et al (2018) Quantification of volatile compounds released by roasted coffee by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 32:739–750
Španěl P et al (1997) Validation of the SIFT technique for trace gas analysis of breath using the syringe injection technique. Ann Occup Hyg 41:373–382
Španěl P, Smith D (2001) On-line measurement of the absolute humidity of air, breath and liquid headspace samples by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 15:563–569
Lindinger W et al (1998) On-line monitoring of volatile organic compounds at pptv levels by means of proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) medical applications, food control and environmental research. Int J Mass Spectrom Ion Process 173:191–241
Blake RS et al (2009) Proton-transfer reaction mass spectrometry. Chem Rev 109:861–896
J d G, Warneke C (2007) Measurements of volatile organic compounds in the earth’s atmosphere using proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry. Mass Spectrom Rev 26:223–257
Jordan A et al (2009) An online ultra-high sensitivity proton-transfer-reaction mass-spectrometer combined with switchable reagent ion capability (PTR+ SRI- MS). Int J Mass Spectrom 286:32–38
Lindinger W, Jordan A (1998) Proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS): on-line monitoring of volatile organic compounds at pptv levels. Chem Soc Rev 27:347–375
Karl T et al (2001) Human breath isoprene and its relation to blood cholesterol levels: new measurements and modeling. J Appl Physiol 91:762
De Gouw J et al (2003) Validation of proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) measurements of gas-phase organic compounds in the atmosphere during the New England Air Quality Study (NEAQS) in 2002. J Geophys Res-Atmos 108(4682)
Hewitt C et al (2003) The application of proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) to the monitoring and analysis of volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere. J Environ Monit 5:1–7
Taipale R et al (2008) Technical note: quantitative long-term measurements of VOC concentrations by PTR-MS-measurement, calibration, and volume mixing ratio calculation methods. Atmos. Chem Phys 8:6681–6698
Schripp T et al (2010) Interferences in the determination of formaldehyde via PTR-MS: what do we learn from m/z 31? Int J Mass Spectrom 289:170–172
Schoon N et al (2007) A selected ion flow tube study of the reactions of H3O+, NO+ and O2+ with a series of C5, C6 and C8 unsaturated biogenic alcohols. Int J Mass Spectrom 263:127–136
Španěl P et al (2004) Quantification of hydrogen cyanide in humid air by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 18:1869–1873
Dhooghe F et al (2009) Flowing afterglow selected ion flow tube (FA-SIFT) study of ion/molecule reactions in support of the detection of biogenic alcohols by medium-pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry techniques. Int J Mass Spectrom 285:31–41
Blake RS et al (2006) Chemical ionization reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry: multi-reagent analysis for determination of trace gas composition. Int J Mass Spectrom 254:85–93
Wyche K et al (2005) Differentiation of isobaric compounds using chemical ionization reaction mass spectrometry. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 19:3356–3362
Blake R et al (2004) Demonstration of proton-transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry for real-time analysis of trace volatile organic compounds. Anal Chem 76:3841–3845
Spesyvyi A et al (2017) Ion chemistry at elevated ion-molecule interaction energies in a selected ion flow-drift tube: reactions of H3O+, NO+ and O2+ with saturated aliphatic ketones. Phys Chem Chem Phys 19:31714–31723
Spesyvyi A et al (2016) In-tube collision-induced dissociation for selected ion flow-drift tube mass spectrometry, SIFDT-MS: a case study of NO+ reactions with isomeric monoterpenes. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 30:2009–2016
Spesyvyi A et al (2015) Selected ion flow-drift tube mass spectrometry: quantification of volatile compounds in air and breath. Anal Chem 87:12151–12160
Oriaku CI, Pereira MF (2017) Analytical solutions for semiconductor luminescence including coulomb correlations with applications to dilute bismides. J Opt Soc Am B 34:321–328
Pereira MF (2017) Analytical expressions for numerical characterization of semiconductors per comparison with luminescence. Materials (Basel) 11:2
Pereira MF (2016) The linewidth enhancement factor of intersubband lasers: from a two-level limit to gain without inversion conditions. Appl Phys Lett 109:222102
Pereira MF et al (2017) Terahertz generation by gigahertz multiplication in superlattices. J Nanophoton 11(046022)
Apostolakis A, Pereira MF (2019) Controlling the harmonic conversion efficiency in semiconductor superlattices by interface roughness design. AIP Adv 9:015022
Apostolakis A, Pereira M (2019) Potential and limits of superlattice multipliers coupled to different input power sources. J Nanophoton 13:036017
Apostolakis A, Pereira MF (2020) Superlattice nonlinearities for gigahertz-terahertz generation in harmonic multipliers. Nano 9(12):3941–3952. https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2020-0155
Pereira MF, Anfertev V, Shevchenko Y, Vaks V (2020) Giant controllable gigahertz to terahertz nonlinearities in superlattices. Sci Rep 10:15950
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 Springer Nature B.V.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Dryahina, K., Spanel, P. (2021). Soft Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometric Analyses of Hazardous Gases and Decomposition Products of Explosives in Air. In: Pereira, M.F., Apostolakis, A. (eds) Terahertz (THz), Mid Infrared (MIR) and Near Infrared (NIR) Technologies for Protection of Critical Infrastructures Against Explosives and CBRN. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series B: Physics and Biophysics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2082-1_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2082-1_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-2081-4
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-2082-1
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)