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

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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.