Combines proton transfer reaction technology with mass spectrometry to enable the detection and speciation of VOCs in virtual real time
The new compact PTR-MS from Ionicon combines proton transfer reaction technology with mass spectrometry to enable the detection and speciation of VOCs in virtual real time. Conventionally, MS analysis has had to be preceded by gas chromatography to aid interpretation and quantification.
PTR-MS can make the GC step unnecessary for many typical VOC analyses, and achieve a response time measured in milliseconds.
This opens a whole new range of possibilities in environmental monitoring, food science, odour analysis and medical applications.
Organic gases such as carbonyls, alcohols, aldehydes, BTX-compounds and many others are monitored within seconds with a detection limit of 1ppbv.
PTR-MS has been used for monitoring trace atmospheric VOCs in locations as diverse as a mountain top and an aircraft in flight.
In medicine, the ability to measure short-term changes in VOCs in exhaled breath can give valuable information on metabolic processes.
Applications in the food industry include odour analysis and the study of degradation processes in food products. Ionicon's exclusive distributors in the UK and Ireland is Quantitech, which will show the Compact PTR-MS at ET2003, 8-10 April at the NEC, the product's first public showing in Europe.