On-site leakage locating of underground natural gas pipeline based on Ne tracer by miniature time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

Natural gas pipeline leakage seriously endangers people's lives and properties, and there is an urgent need for on-site, rapid, and accurate locating the leakage point of the underground natural gas pipeline. Here, we added neon gas to natural gas pipelines as a tracer gas, and used a miniature time-of-flight mass spectrometry (mini-TOFMS) to on-site detect neon gas to quickly locate the leak point of underground natural gas pipelines. The mini-TOFMS used capillary tube sampling to directly analyze the leaked neon gas without sample preparation, and the analysis time of a single sample was only 60 s, which was less than one-seventeenth that of traditional off-line gas chromatography (GC) method. The mini-TOFMS exhibited a linear response range from 69 ppmv to 3.0 × 105 ppmv with the limit of detection (LOD, S/N = 3) of 19.0 ppmv. The correlation of GC and mini-TOFMS for Ne quantitative analysis was as high as 0.98. The performance of the newly designed method with the mini-TOFMS was demonstrated by on-site locating the underground natural gas pipeline leakage point in the experimental station. And leakage point of the natural gas pipeline, especially for those pipelines with different gas pressure buried under the same road, can be found more efficiently and accurately.

Rapid and highly sensitive measurement of trimethylamine in seawater using dynamic purge-release and dopant-assisted atmospheric pressure photoionization mass spectrometry.

Trimethylamine (TMA) is ubiquitous in the marine systems and may affect atmospheric chemistry as a precursor and strong stabilizer of atmospheric secondary aerosol, influencing cloud formation. Rapid and accurate measurement of the concentration of TMA in seawater is challenging due to their polarity, aqueous solubility, volatility and existence at low concentrations in marine environments. In this study, a dopant-assisted atmospheric pressure photoionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (DA-APPI-TOFMS) coupled with a dynamic purge-release method was developed for rapid and sensitive analysis of TMA in seawater. A novel three-zones ionization source has been developed for improving the ionization efficiency of analyte molecules and minimizing the influence of high-humidity of the sample gas, which allowed direct analysis of high-humidity (RH> 90%) gas samples from microbubble purging process by the mass spectrometer. At atmospheric pressure, the three-zones ionization source allows the use of high-speed purge gas to quickly purge all organic amines dissolved in the water into the gas phase, ensuring quantitative accuracy. The limit of quantification (LOQ) for TMA down to 0.1 µg L-1 was obtained in less than 2 min by consuming only 2 mL seawater sample. This method was applied for the determination of the concentrations of TMA in the coastal seawater to validate its practicability and reliability for analysis of trace amines in marine environments.

Online monitoring of trace chlorinated benzenes in flue gas of municipal solid waste incinerator by windowless VUV lamp single photon ionization TOFMS coupled with automatic enrichment system.

Chlorinated benzenes are typical precursors and indicators for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) emissions from waste incinerators. Online and real-time monitoring of chlorobenzenes is a challenge due to their low concentration and complex nature of the flue gas. In this work, a continuous online monitoring system was built for detection of trace chlorinated benzenes based on a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS). A single photon ionization (SPI) source based on a radiofrequency-excited windowless vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) lamp was developed for the first time to eliminate the signal attenuation resulting from the contamination of magnesium fluoride windows and to avoid the fragment ions. An automatic enrichment system including three parallel Tenax TA adsorption tubes was designed and coupled to the TOFMS to achieve the required ultrahigh sensitivity. The limits of quantitation at 7.65, 5.37 and 6.77pptv were obtained for monochlorobenzene (MCBz), dichlorobenzene (DCBz) and trichlorobenzene (TrCBz), respectively, within a 29-min analytical period. Moreover, this apparatus was applied to continuously online monitor the actual flue gas from a waste incinerator for three months. During this period, the concentrations of MCBz, DCBz and TrCBz detected in the flue gas were in the range of 100-1200, 50-800 and 50-300pptv, respectively. The relative standard deviation (RSD) of the sensitivity for the windowless VUV lamp ion source was 9.71% evaluated by the internal standard benzene over the 3-months flue gas monitoring. These results demonstrated the capability of this method in long-term analysis of the trace chlorinated benzenes in the flue gas.

[Coupling of gas chromatography with single photon ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and its application to characterization of compounds in diesel].

A novel analytical method coupling gas chromatography (GC) with single photon ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (SPI-TOF MS) has been developed. First of all, a double-wall-tube transfer line was built to combine GC with SPI-TOF MS, which realized seamless connection between GC and SPI ion source. Based on this, standard n-pentadecane and benzene/toluene/xylene standard gas mixtures were used to study important voltage parameters of the ion source. After the optimization of the ion source voltages, pure molecular ion peaks of the analytes were obtained in the mass spectra and qualitative analysis of different kinds of organic compounds were eventually realized rapidly and accurately. At last, GC/SPI-TOF MS was applied to the characterization of volatile and semvolatile organic compounds in diesel and two-dimensional spectra of GC×SPI-TOF MS were obtained. Without complicated spectra interpretation and data processing, volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds in diesel have been classified qualitatively by ion mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) in SPI mass spectra, including aliphatic compounds, aromatic compounds and nitrogen-containing compounds with low concentration such as benzopyrroles. Isomeric compounds in diesel were separated and identified by retention times of chromatographic peaks. The results indicate that the proposed analytical method of GC/SPI-TOF MS is suitable for the characterization of complicated samples such as diesel and environmental pollutants with easy operation and high efficiency.

Bipolar ionization source for ion mobility spectrometry based on vacuum ultraviolet radiation induced photoemission and photoionization.

A novel bipolar ionization source based on a commercial vacuum-UV Kr lamp has been developed for ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), which can work in both negative and positive ion mode. Its reactant ions formed in negative ion mode were predominantly assigned to be O(3)(-)(H(2)O)(n), which is different from that of the (63)Ni source with purified air as carrier and drift gases. The formation of O(3)(-)(H(2)O)(n) was due to the production of ozone caused by ultraviolet radiation, and the ozone concentration was measured to be about 1700 ppmv by iodometric titration method. Inorganic molecules such as SO(2), CO(2), and H(2)S can be easily detected in negative ion mode, and a linear dynamic range of 3 orders of magnitude and a limit of detection (S/N = 3) of 150 pptv were obtained for SO(2). Its performance as a negative ion source was investigated by the detection of ammonium nitrate fuel oil explosive, N-nitrobis(2-hydroxyethyl)amine dinitrate, cyclo-1,3,5-trimethylene-2,4,6-trinitramine, and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) at 150 degrees C. The limit of detection was reached at 45 pg for PETN, which was much lower than the 190 pg using (63)Ni ion mobility spectrometry under the same experimental condition. Also, its performance as an ordinary photoionization source was investigated in detecting benzene, toluene, and m-xylene.

A new membrane inlet interface of a vacuum ultraviolet lamp ionization miniature mass spectrometer for on-line rapid measurement of volatile organic compounds in air.

A novel membrane inlet interface coupled to a single-photon ionization (SPI) miniature time-of-flight mass spectrometer has been developed for on-line rapid measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light source for SPI was a commercial krypton discharge lamp with photon energy of 10.6 eV and photon flux of 10(10) photons/s. The experimental results showed that the sensitivity was 5 times as high as obtained with the traditional membrane inlet. The enrichment efficiency could be adjusted in the range of 10 to 20 times for different VOCs when a buffer cell was added to the inlet interface, and the memory effect was effectively eliminated. A detection limit as low as 25 parts-per-billion by volume (ppbv) for benzene has been achieved, with a linear dynamic range of three orders of magnitude. The rise times were 6 s, 10 s and 15 s for benzene, toluene and p-xylene, respectively, and the fall time was only 6 s for all of these compounds. The analytical capacity of this system was demonstrated by the on-line analysis of VOCs in single puff mainstream cigarette smoke, in which more than 50 compounds were detected in 2 s.

[Synthesis, characterization and photo degradation application for dye-rhodamine B of nano-iron oxide/bentonite].

The iron oxide/bentonite was prepared through a reaction of a solution of OH-Fe salt with bentonite clay dispersion. BET, XRD an d HRTEM were used t o study i ts surface area, microstructure, and average particle size. The iron oxide/bentonite nano composite was developed as the heterogeneous catalyst for successful discoloration and mineralization of dye rhodamine B And the effects of solution pH, H2O2 molar concentration, catalyst loading and initial rhodamine B concentration were studied in detail by photometric method. The process of degradation was traced by UV-Visible spectrum. Besides, the comparison between the heterogeneous photo-Fenton process and homogeneous photo-Fenton process was performed. The result shows that, it has large surface area and mainly consists of high catalytic activity alpha-Fe2O3. The discoloration ratio is up to 97% and the COD(Cr), removal ratio is 71% after 4 h in the presence of pH 3.0, 2.5 x 10(-5) mol x L(-1) rhodamine B 100 mL, 0.3 g x L(-1) catalyst, 10 mmol x L(-1) H2O2 and UV. The rhodamine B degradating speed of heterogeneous photo-Fenton process is much faster than that of homogeneous photo-Fenton process. The catalyst can be reused after being treated.