SBIR Phase I: Development of a Time of Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer for Atmospheric Aerosol Analysis

这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目致力于准确测量对全球和监管环境问题具有重大影响的大气气溶胶的成分和微物理。该项目将用紧凑型飞行时间质谱仪(TOFMS)取代四极质谱计(QMS)。这将使以粒子为基础的完整化学成分的测量成为可能。关键是电子和数据采集系统，它将使半连续飞行时间质谱仪在计算上实现实用化。第一阶段项目将导致建造一个原型仪器，该仪器将具有实时监测环境气溶胶化学和微物理的独特能力。此外，高效EI与紧凑型TOFMS的耦合将有许多其他潜在的质谱学应用。现有气溶胶质谱仪的商业市场包括政府和教育研究实验室，并可能扩大到包括监管监测工作和过程工业实验室。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses the accurate measurement of the composition and microphysics of atmospheric aerosols that have significant implications for global and regulatory environmental issues. This project would replace the quadrupole mass-spectrometer (QMS) with a compact time-of-flight mass spectrometer (TOFMS). This would enable the measurement of complete chemical composition on a particle by particle basis. Key to this is the electronic and data acquisition system, which will make semi-continuous TOFMS practical computationally. The Phase I project will lead to the construction of a prototype instrument that will have unique capabilities for real time monitoring of ambient aerosol chemistry and microphysics. Moreover, the coupling of high efficiency EI to the compact TOFMS will have many other potential mass spectrometric applications.The commercial market for the existing aerosol mass spectrometer includes government and educational research labs, and may expand to include regulatory monitoring efforts and process industrial laboratories.