Rapid Mass Spectrometric Detection of Chemical Warfare Agents, Simulants, and Toxic Industrial Chemicals using a Field-Portable GC-TMS

摘要

Rapid detection and identification of a wide range of chemical compounds in air, headspace, liquid and dissolved solid matrices from trace to neat concentrations is essential in field sampling scenarios. The presence of threats such as toxic industrial chemicals (TICs), explosives or chemical warfare agents (HD, GB, VX, etc.) represents a significant danger that necessitates near real time detection. In field scenarios, the ability to collect and transport samples to a central laboratory for analysis is time consuming and risks personnel health and safety. Rapid screening and automated mass spectrometric library confirmation of volatile and semivolatile compounds in near real-time is possible using solid phase microextraction (SPME) with a hand-portable miniaturized gas chromatograph-toroidal ion trap mass spectrometer (GC-TMS).