Near real time detection of hazardous airborne substances

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 100ng/m3 (10ppt). 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 10ng/m3–60ng/m3 (1–11ppt). In addition, the ability to detect trace concentrations of real CWA is demonstrated with a measurement of 30pg 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. ► Detection of low concentrations of airborne CWA and CWA simulants is presented. ► Tandem-Thermodesorber is combined with fast GC-TOFMS. ► Chemometric methods for deconvolution are used. ► The influence of stationary film thickness on peak tailing of organophosphates is investigated.