Reducing False Alarms in Ion Mobility Spectrometry Detectors - Determination of Accurate and Precise Ion Mobility Spectrometry Constants
Abstract
Ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) is a widely used analytical technique for detecting chemical warfare agents, narcotics, and explosives in the field. Detection of a compound of interest is based on the ions reduced mobility (K0) value. The detection windows for compounds of interest are currently only as small as 2 of the predicted drift time measurement for the compound of interest, resulting in false positive alarms when an interferent appears within these wide detection windows. Accurate K0 values that are an order of magnitude better than the current literature values will lower the propagation of error when predicting the drift time of an ion and reduce the width of the detection windows. An accurate IMS instrument has been constructed and installed on an existing time-of-flight mass spectrometer (to fMS) and accurate K0 values of selected compounds have been measured as a function of multiple instrumental parameters. This initial database of accurate K0 values will be expanded upon in the future to include additional compounds of interest. The database of accurate K0 values will be used to calibrate IMS-based field instruments and reduce their rates of false positive alarms without increasing their rates of false negative responses or changing their hardware.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 08, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1063199
Entities
People
- Brian C Hauck
- Charles S. Harden
- Herbert H. Hill
- Vincent M. Mchugh
- William F. Siems
Organizations
- Washington State University