Selective Detection of Volatile Organics in a Mixture Using a Photoionization Detector and Thermal Desorption from a Nanoporous Preconcentrator.

The selective detection of individual hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) within a mixture is of great importance in industrial contexts due to environmental and health concerns. Achieving this with inexpensive, portable detectors continues to be a significant challenge. Here, a novel thermal separator system coupled with a photoionization detector has been developed, and its ability to selectively detect the VOCs isopropanol and 1-octene from a mixture of the two has been studied.

Temporally resolved thermal desorption of volatile organics from nanoporous silica preconcentrator.

Detection and separation of gas-phase volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is of great importance for many applications including air quality monitoring, toxic gas detection and medical diagnostics. A lack of small and low-cost detectors limits the potential applications of VOC gas sensors, especially in the areas of consumer products and the 'Internet of Things'. Most of the commercially available low-cost technologies are either only capable of measuring a single VOC type, or only provide a total VOC concentration, without the ability to provide information on the nature or type of the VOC.

Nanoporous Silica Preconcentrator for Vapor-Phase DMNB, a Detection Taggant for Explosives.

The detection of trace amounts of explosives in the vapor phase is of great importance. Preconcentration of the analyte is a useful technique to lower the detection limit of existing sensors. A nanoporous silica (pSiO) substrate was evaluated as a preconcentrator for gas-phase 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane (DMNB), a volatile detection taggant added by law to plastic explosives.