Trace gas facility

The Life Science Trace Gas Facility operates a variety of state-of-the-art trace gas detectors that allow real time measurements at unprecedented detection levels. The strength of this unique Facility results from over 20 years of experience with applications in Life Science.

Access to this Facility, training, and support will be given to researchers from all fields of Life Science, from Plant physiology, Post harvest research, Entomology, Soil science, Microbiology, Ecology, Molecular biology and Biotechnology, to Medicine and Human health. The infrastructure is well equipped with state-of-the-art trace gas detectors and supporting instrumentation which has proved to be indispensable for these fields of research.

The laser-based trace gas detectors are using CO2-, CO-, and Quantum Cascade lasers and Optical Parametric Oscillators (OPO) as light sources. They cover the infrared wavelength region from 2.8-11 μm, in which most of the important gases have their strongest “molecular fingerprints”. The gas detectors take the advantage of infrared absorption by combining laser characteristics with extremely sensitive detection schemes such as photoacoustic spectroscopy, cavity ring down spectroscopy and wavelength modulation spectroscopy.

Additionally, a Proton-Transfer Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS) and a Proton- Transfer Reaction Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (PIT-MS) are in use for simultaneous detection of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Due to their highly advanced chemical ionization scheme, these detectors are extremely sensitive for gases with hardly any fragmentation of molecules.

The strength of these instruments resides in the possibility to perform non-invasive, fast (seconds time scale) and on-line detection of ultra low gas concentrations at and below the ppbv-level (1 ppbv = 1 part per billion volume= 1:109 ) under rapidly changing external conditions.

http://www.ru.nl/tracegasfacility/
http://www.opticalnose.com/