Enhancements in Portable Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Instrumentation for VOC Analysis
DEVON HIGGINS, Lindsay Harrington, Sara Button, INFICON, Inc.
Abstract Number: 449
Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract
Recent innovations in portable Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) instruments have expanded the ability of researchers to perform high-resolution gas phase chemical analysis in locations inaccessible to traditional benchtop systems such as remote field environments, at specific point-sources, or in mobile platforms like aircrafts or automobiles. For over two decades, INFICON has been the leader in the portable GC/MS industry with HAPSITE® the most widely deployed chemical identification system in the world. HAPSITE CDT, a new person-portable GC/MS developed by INFICON, was initially designed to offer an easy-to-use platform for the rapid quantitative analysis of toxic industrial chemicals, chemical warfare agents (CWAs), and complex environmental threats from air, water, or soil samples. The development of an environmental variant of HAPSITE CDT included hardware and method modifications to better optimize the instrument’s performance for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) relevant to atmospheric processes. These modifications improve chromatographic resolution dramatically and extend sensitivity across a wide range of vapor pressures (from 0.085 mmHg to 2980 mmHg at 25°C). The ppb-level detection limits achieved by this variant of HAPSITE CDT enables high-resolution, quantitative gas-phase VOC measurements, critical for studying new particle formation, secondary organic aerosol (SOA) precursors, and emissions from biogenic or anthropogenic sources. The instrument’s innovative sample introduction design supports quick, tool-free swapping between modular cartridges containing thermal desorption tubes, injection ports for the analysis of solvent extracts or solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers, or a survey-mode hand probe for continuous MS-only measurements. This flexibility streamlines sample collection across a variety of use cases, from point-source analysis to real-time environmental surveys. Overall, the portability, flexibility, and ruggedness of HAPSITE CDT make it a valuable tool for real-time, in situ VOC measurements in dynamic and remote atmospheric environments.