Proton-transfer-reaction/ion-mobility-spectrometer and method of using the same
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsIsik Kanik, Luther W. Beegle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A high-pressure hollow cathode ionizer is combined with an ion-mobility-spectrometer (IMS) for the detection of trace amounts of organic compounds in gas. The ionizer uses H30+, ions which do not react with air to ionize the organic compounds and the organic compounds are soft ionized. The ionized organic compounds are detected in the IMS at levels of parts per billion and identified using calibrated reference tables. Applications include but are not limited to the fields of: (1) medicine as a breath analyzer for detection of lung cancer, diabetes, liver cirrhosis, (2) law enforcement in drug interdiction and explosives detection, (3) food monitoring and control, (4) environmental monitoring and (5) space applications
Claims22
An apparatus comprising:
- an ionizer to generate a plasma of reactant ions;
- a reaction chamber communicated with the ionizer in which the reactant ions chemically react with molecules of interest to produce product ions;
- and
- an ion mobility spectrometer communicated with the reaction chamber to detect the product ions.
A method comprising:
- generating a plasma of reactant ions in an ionizer;
- chemically reacting the reactant ions with molecules of interest to produce product ions in a reaction chamber;
- and
- detecting product ions in an ion mobility spectrometer communicated with the reaction chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.