Fast Sensing of Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) Vapors Using a Hand-Held Ion Mobility Spectrometer with Nonradioactive Ionization Source

Abstract

Sensitive real-time detection of vapors produced by toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) always represents a stringent priority. Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is definitely a TIC, being widely used in various industries and as an insecticide; it is a reactive, very flammable, and highly toxic compound that affects the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, eyes, nose, throat, and also has systemic effects. Moreover, HCN is considered a blood chemical warfare agent. This study was focused toward quick detection and quantification of HCN in air using time-of-flight ion mobility spectrometry (ToF IMS). Results obtained clearly indicate that IMS can rapidly detect HCN at sub-ppmv levels in air. Ion mobility spectrometric response was obtained in the negative ion mode and presented one single distinct product ion, at reduced ion mobility K0 of 2.38 cm2 V−1 s−1. Our study demonstrated that by using a miniaturized commercial IMS system with nonradioactive ionization source model LCD-3.2E (Smiths Detection Ltd., London, UK), one can easily measure HCN at concentrations of 0.1 ppmv (0.11 mg m−3) in negative ion mode, which is far below the OSHA PEL-TWA value of 10 ppmv. Measurement range was from 0.1 to 10 ppmv and the estimated limit of detection LoD was ca. 20 ppbv (0.02 mg m−3).

Keywords

• hydrogen cyanide (HCN)
• ion mobility spectrometry (IMS)
• trace detection
• toxic industrial compounds (TICs)
• chemical warfare agents (CWAs)