A MEMS-Enabled Portable Gas Chromatography Injection System for Trace Analysis

Details

• Personal Author:
  Agah M ; Ahn J ; Chowdhury M ; Gupta P ; Marr LC ; Nazhandali L ; Sharma A ; Thamatam N
• Description:
  Growing concerns about environmental conditions, public health, and disease diagnostics have led to the rapid development of portable sampling techniques to characterize trace-level volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from various sources. A MEMS-based micropreconcentrator (µPC) is one such approach that drastically reduces the size, weight, and power constraints offering greater sampling flexibility in many applications. However, the adoption of µPCs on a commercial scale is hindered by a lack of thermal desorption units (TDUs) that easily integrate µPCs with gas chromatography (GC) systems equipped with a flame ionization detector (FID) or a mass spectrometer (MS). Here, we report a highly versatile µPC-based, single-stage autosampler-injection unit for traditional, portable, and micro-GCs. The system uses µPCs packaged in 3D-printed swappable cartridges and is based on a highly modular interfacing architecture that allows easy-to-remove, gas-tight fluidic, and detachable electrical connections (FEMI). This study describes the FEMI architecture and demonstrates the FEMI-Autosampler (FEMI-AS) prototype (9.5 cm × 10 cm x 20 cm, approx. equal to 500 gms). The system was integrated with GC-FID, and the performance was investigated using synthetic gas samples and ambient air. The results were contrasted with the sorbent tube sampling technique using TD-GC-MS. FEMI-AS could generate sharp injection plugs (approx. equal to 240 ms) and detect analytes with concentrations <15 ppb within 20 s and <100 ppt within 20 min of sampling time. With more than 30 detected trace-level compounds from ambient air, the demonstrated FEMI-AS, and the FEMI architecture significantly accelerate the adoption of µPCs on a broader scale. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Chemistry, Analytic Laboratories Occupational Health Safety Volatile Organic Compounds
• Keywords:
  Analytical Chemistry Analytical Instruments Author Keywords: Gas Chromatography Fluidic Connections Gas Chromatography Laboratory Techniques Micropreconcentrator Portable Thermal Desorption Unit Trace Analysis VOCs Volatile Organic Compounds

  More +
• ISSN:
  0003-2670
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  1261
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20067661
• Citation:
  Anal Chim Acta 2023 Jun; 1261:341209
• Contact Point Address:
  Masoud Agah, VT MEMS Lab, The Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, United States
• Email:
  agah@vt.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2023
• Performing Organization:
  Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20190601
• Source Full Name:
  Analytica Chimica Acta
• End Date:
  20230531
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:62c58b5bb51daae56c9c63a8d51e8a1b68b82230f7ff288c200b40934df6794e2fef305bbba9130f1a049ff83df63016652c214a9249afa03c553a1295fe6d75
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/229930/cdc_229930_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 9.78 MB ]