New TRAP-GC-MS-FID Instrument for Ambient Air Monitoring Designed for Onsite Use

To ensure personal safety and an efficient repeatability of industrial processes, the analysis of ambient air is crucial. In particular, electronic boards are produced in clean air room by a complex lithographic process using very reactive chemicals. The nature and concentration of volatile compounds can be different depending on the chemical process and can also vary widely. There is a need to precisely and continuously analyse gas processes in air with an instrument designed for industrial use.

Chromatotec (France) has developed a turnkey solution which allows the quantification and identification of compounds at ppt, ppb, ppm and % levels. The airmoTWA is a new industry standard for online and continuous TRAP-GC-MS-FID. It encompasses a specific trap to concentrate the sample, a column for separation of chemicals and two detectors: a new micro flame ionisation detector (FID) and a mass spectrometer for quantification and identification respectively. The airmoTWA is simple to use and incredibly sensitive and delivers robust and reliable performance. Of most imprtance to many users, the instrument can monitor high and low concentrations for a large number of molecules. The instrument measures and records concentrations of chemicals and can have its alarm systems set to activate on important changes of the surrounding atmosphere. In Figure 2, a mass spectrometer chromatogram obtained analysing ambient air is shown. The peak resolution and sensitivity of the instruments facilitate quantifying and identifying very low VOC concentrations.