Development of a Mesoscale Pulsed Discharge Helium Ionization Detector for Portable Gas Chromatography

Ronald P. MANGINELL; Curtis D. MOWRY; Adam S. PIMENTEL; Michael A. MANGAN; Matthew W. MOORMAN; Elizabeth S. SPARKS; Amy ALLEN; Komandoor E. ACHYUTHAN

doi:10.2116/analsci.31.1183

Original Papers

Development of a Mesoscale Pulsed Discharge Helium Ionization Detector for Portable Gas Chromatography

Ronald P. MANGINELL, Curtis D. MOWRY, Adam S. PIMENTEL, Michael A. MANGAN, Matthew W. MOORMAN, Elizabeth S. SPARKS, Amy ALLEN, Komandoor E. ACHYUTHAN

Author information

Ronald P. MANGINELL
Bio/Chem/Physical Microsensors Department, Sandia National Laboratories
Curtis D. MOWRY
Materials Characterization Department, Sandia National Laboratories
Adam S. PIMENTEL
Materials Characterization Department, Sandia National Laboratories
Michael A. MANGAN
Photonic Microsystems Technologies Department, Sandia National Laboratories
Matthew W. MOORMAN
Bio/Chem/Physical Microsensors Department, Sandia National Laboratories
Elizabeth S. SPARKS
Materials Characterization Department, Sandia National Laboratories
Amy ALLEN
Materials Characterization & Performance Department, Sandia National Laboratories
Komandoor E. ACHYUTHAN
Bio/Chem/Physical Microsensors Department, Sandia National Laboratories

Keywords: Micro-pulsed discharge helium ionization detector (micro-PDHID), mesoscale fabrication, 3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid, gas chromatography, GC, volatile organic compounds, VOC

JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

2015 Volume 31 Issue 11 Pages 1183-1188

DOI https://doi.org/10.2116/analsci.31.1183

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Abstract

Miniaturization of gas chromatography (GC) instrumentation enables field detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for chembio-applications such as clandestine human transport and disease diagnostics. We fabricated a mesoscale pulsed discharge helium ionization detector (micro-PDHID) for integrating with our previously described mini-GC hardware. Stainless steel electrodes fabricated by photochemical etching and electroforming facilitated rapid prototyping and enabled nesting of inter-electrode insulators for self-alignment of the detector core during assembly. The prototype was ∼10 cm³ relative to >400 cm³ of a commercial PDHID, but with a comparable time to sweep a VOC peak from the detector cell (170 ms and 127 ms, respectively). Electron trajectory modeling, gas flow rate, voltage bias, and GC outlet location were optimized for improving sensitivity. Despite 40-fold miniaturization, the micro-PDHID detected 18 ng of the human emanation, 3-methyl-2-hexenoic acid with <3-fold decrease in sensitivity relative to the commercial detector. The micro-PDHID was rugged and operated for 9 months without failure.

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