Portable electronic system for the analysis of time-variable gaseous flows

A system for analyzing time-variable gaseous flows, the system being portable and comprising:

• a sampling chamber, suitable to be kept at a controlled sampling pressure (Pc), and configured to receive at least one gaseous flow (F) having a gaseous composition to be analyzed that is variable over time;
• a gas sampling module, in fluidic communication with the sampling chamber, configured to adjust, in a controllable manner, an input gaseous flow (Fi) of gas particles entering the gas sampling module, at said controlled sampling pressure (Pc), from the sampling chamber, and an output gaseous flow (Fo) from the gas sampling module, so as to reproduce inside the gas sampling module a gaseous composition representative of the gaseous composition to be analyzed,
• the gas sampling module being further configured to ionize said gas particles and to emit the ions produced, so as to generate an ion flow (I) having an ion composition representative of the gaseous composition to be analyzed,
• the gas sampling module being further suitable to maintain therein a controlled ionization pressure (Pi), the gas sampling module comprising:
• an inlet member, configured to inhibit or allow and/or adjust an inlet in the ionization chamber of the input gas flow (Fi), and comprising a gaseous flow adjusting interface, having a plurality of nano-holes, of sub-micrometer dimensions, suitable to be opened or closed, in a controlled manner, to allow or inhibit said plurality of micro-flows at a molecular or predominantly molecular regime;
• an ion outlet member, configured to inhibit or allow and/or adjust said output gaseous flow (Fo), at a molecular or predominantly molecular regime, and the ion flow (I) of the generated ions, said outlet member comprising an orifice, which can be opened or closed, in a controlled manner, so as to control an output conductance for the output gaseous flow (Fo);
• an ion filtering module, operatively connected to the gas sampling module to receive the ion flow (I), and configured to controllably select at least one type of ions present in the ion flow (I) and to generate a corresponding at least one homogeneous ion beam (I′), having an intensity representative of the concentration of the corresponding gas particle in the gaseous composition to be analyzed;
• an ion detecting module, operatively connected to the ion filtering module to receive said at least one ion beam (I′), and configured to measure the intensity of the at least one ion beam (I′) and to generate a corresponding electric signal (S) representative of the concentration of the corresponding gas particle in the gaseous composition to be analyzed;
• wherein said input gaseous flow (Fi) comprises a plurality of micro-flows at a molecular or predominantly molecular regime, at the sampling pressure (Pc), and said output gaseous flow (Fo) is a flow at a molecular or predominantly molecular regime, at the ionization pressure (Pi).