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Calibration of complex mixtures in one sweep

  • Original Research
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International Journal for Ion Mobility Spectrometry

Abstract

The calibration of extremely complex humid gas-phase mixtures – often required in ion mobility spectrometry applications – is challenging, even when high-performance calibration gas generators such as HovaCAL® are applied. Here, we describe an approach to develop and apply mixtures of VOCs in one channel of such a calibration gas generator for a complex calibration in one sweep. As an example, a mixture of so-called “Signs of Life” – compounds available in the exhaled breath and/or in the sweat of everybody was used. The procedure of developing the appropriate mixture and the results of a successful calibration of a GC-ion mobility spectrometer are presented.

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Acknowledgments

The financial support of the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung and the Ministerium für Innovation, Wissenschaft und Forschung des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen is gratefully acknowledged. This research was funded by the European Union as part of the project “Detection of olfactory traces by orthogonal gas identification technologies” (DOGGIES), a collaborative project (No. 285446) funded under call identifier FP7-SEC-20011-1, which is part of the FP7 Program. Furthermore, the dedicated support of the workshops at ISAS, Dortmund, Germany and CNR-IMM, Bologna, Italy was indispensable for the success of the present study. Moreover, the steady and easy-going support by IAS, namely Martin Schmäh and his stuff is gratefully acknowledged.

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All authors significantly contributed and have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Wolfgang Vautz.

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Bergen, I., Liedtke, S., Güssgen, S. et al. Calibration of complex mixtures in one sweep. Int. J. Ion Mobil. Spec. 21, 55–64 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12127-018-0236-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12127-018-0236-0

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