Hyphenated techniques: The next generation of field-portable analytical instruments?

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:230948

Meuzelaar, H L.C.; McClennen, W H; Dworzanski, J P; Sheya, S A ^[1]; Snyder, A P; Harden, C S ^[2]; Arnold, N S ^[3]

---

1. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States). Center for Micro Analysis and Reaction Chemistry
2. Department of Defense, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (United States)
3. FemtoScan Corp., Salt Lake City, UT (United States)

The first field-portable (i.e., transportable) hyphenated analytical instruments, including commercially available MS/MS and GC/MS systems as well as a specially built GC/MS{sup n} introduced during the past seven years. Since then further miniaturization and ruggedization of hyphenated systems by several laboratories has resulted in fully man-portable (backpack and briefcase style) GC/MS systems and a hand portable GC/IMS prototype. The main pitfall to be avoided in developing hyphenated, field portable system is incompatibility between the coupled techniques. Carefully designed hyphenated techniques incorporating compatible methods such as GC and MS can provide dramatic increases in resolution and chemical specificity which may be traded for speed or sensitivity gains, if needed. Novel developments currently underway in the laboratory include roving GC/MS platforms, personalized GC/IMS devices, high speed GC/GC methods and, last but not least, Virtual Reality techniques.

• OSTI ID: 230948
• Report Number(s): CONF-950209--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DATA
FIELD TESTS
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
PORTABLE EQUIPMENT
REMEDIAL ACTION
SITE CHARACTERIZATION
TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT