Tandem differential mobility ion mobility spectrometer for chemical vapor detection
First Claim
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1. A chemical sensing system comprising:
- a differential mobility spectrometry system operable to isolate a range of chemicals from an environmental sample;
a time-of-flight ion-mobility spectrometry system downstream of said differential mobility spectrometry system operable to analyze said range of chemicals to produce a time-resolved spectrum of ions; and
a controller having a stored library of differential mobilities and ion mobilities of predefined target analytes for comparison to said time-resolved spectrum of ions.
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Abstract
A DMS-IMS chemical sensing system employs two ion-separation technologies in tandem to extract signals of specific chemicals from the glut of signals present. The sensing system generally includes an atmospheric pressure ion generation system, a Differential Mobility (DMS) system, a time-of-flight IMS (TOF-IMS) system, and an ion detector system. The DMS extracts a narrow range of trace chemicals from an environmental sample for subsequent analysis, and a TOF-IMS then analyzes the resulting narrow range of isolated chemicals, allowing compound-specific detection thresholds at sub-ppb concentrations.
35 Citations
27 Claims
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1. A chemical sensing system comprising:
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a differential mobility spectrometry system operable to isolate a range of chemicals from an environmental sample; a time-of-flight ion-mobility spectrometry system downstream of said differential mobility spectrometry system operable to analyze said range of chemicals to produce a time-resolved spectrum of ions; and a controller having a stored library of differential mobilities and ion mobilities of predefined target analytes for comparison to said time-resolved spectrum of ions. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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12. A method of sensing a chemical vapor comprising the steps of:
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(1) separating a first ion stream by differential mobility to extract a second ion stream; (2) separating the second ion stream by ion mobility to produce a time-resolved spectrum of ions; (3) detecting the time-resolved spectrum of ions; (4) comparing the differential mobility and ion mobility of the time-resolved spectrum of ions from said step
3) to those of a stored library of target analytes; and(5) triggering an alarm when the time-resolved spectrum of ions have differential mobility and ion mobility equal to target analytes within the stored library. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18-19. -19. (canceled)
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20. A method of sensing a chemical vapor comprising the steps of:
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(1) extracting a second ion stream of a predetermined differential mobility from a first ion stream; (2) separating the second ion stream to direct a time-resolved spectrum of ions at a detector; and (3) comparing the time-of-flight of ions from said step (2) to those within a stored library of target compounds, CWAs, and TICs. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23)
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Specification