Apparatus for near simultaneous chemiluminescent sulfur and nitrogen detection
AssigneeAntek Instruments, Inc.
InventorsXinwei Yan, Eugene Malcolm Fujinari
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Abstract
A method and apparatus are disclosed for the near simultaneous detection of light emitted from ozone induced chemiluminescence of nitrogen and sulfur species capable of undergoing ozone induced chemiluminescence in a single instrument. A sample containing sulfur and/or nitrogen is first subjected to an oxidative/reductive process which generates ozone reactive nitrogen and sulfur species which are then forwarded to an specially designed ozone/detector chamber. The ozone relative species are brought in contact with ozone in the special chamber and the chemiluminescence of the nitrogen species and the sulfur species are measured and quantitated.
Claims13
An apparatus comprising:
- a. a heated chamber including:
- i. an oxidizing zone where a portion of a sample is oxidized in the presence of an oxidizing agent to water and oxides including nitrogen and sulfur oxides;
- ii. a reducing one where a portion of the sulfur oxides are reduced in the presence of a reducing agent to form an effluent comprising ozone reactive nitrogen and sulfur species;
- b. a light tight, reaction/detection chamber including:
- i. a first zone having a first port in light communication with a nitrogen chemiluminescence detector, an inlet for receiving the effluent and an ozone inlet for supplying ozone where the ozone reactive nitrogen and sulfur species are contacted with ozone to form meta-stable nitrogen species and meta-stable sulfur species and where the meta-stable nitrogen species immediately decay generating nitrogen chemiluminescent light detected by the nitrogen detector;
- ii. a second zone having a second port in light communication with a sulfur chemiluminescence detector and an outlet for exiting the effluent out of the reaction/detection chamber where the meta-stable sulfur species decay generating sulfur chemiluminescent light detected by the sulfur detector;
- iii. a gas permeable, light barrier interposed between the two zones where the effluent flows from the first zone to the second zone so that the two chemiluminescent lights are substantially independently detected;
- and
- c. a signal analyzer, in electrical communication with the nitrogen and sulfur detectors, for converting detectors signals into quantified concentrations of nitrogen and sulfur in the sample.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.