Method for measuring the concentration of water in Argon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Helium by ionization mobility spectrometry

Abstract

A method for measuring by means of ionization mobility spectrometry relatively high concentrations of water in argon, hydrogen, nitrogen and helium, characterized by comprising the followings operative steps: introducing the gas to be analyzed into an IMS instrument (10) with a counter-flow of pure gas; obtaining a signal (19) variable during the time and proportional to the number of ions detected by an ion detector (14) of the IMS instrument (10); determining two time intervals (A, B) corresponding to the drift times in the IMS instrument (10) of the H3O+ and (H2O)2+ ions; obtaining the peaks of said signal (19) in the two determined time intervals (A, B); calculating the water concentration in the gas to be analyzed according to the ratio between the intensity of the two peaks obtained in the signal (19).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.