Research & measuring equipment

Description of our PTR-MS system

Hollow cathode Drift tube Quadrupole mass analyser Secondary electron multiplier

A proton exchange reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) allows real-time measurements of trace gases with concentrations as low as a few pptv. The method is based on reactions of H3O+ ions from the hollow cathode (red), which perform non-dissociative proton (H+) exchange on most of the common volatile organic compounds (VOCs), but do not react with the main components of clean air. These reactions take place in the drift tube (blue).
The main focus of our group is on real-time monitoring of the variations of VOCs in the troposphere with sampling rates in or below the minute range.
Other applications: Medicine (breath analysis to monitor metabolic processes in the human body) and especially food research

A large number of laboratory experiments can be carried out on the "Selected Ion Flow Drift Tube" (SIFDT), which has a similar design, but is considerably larger and has a second mass selector at the front end.