T. L. Porter,
1
T. R. Dillingham,
1
D. M. Cornelison,
1
R. J. Venedam,
2
and G. Williams
3
1
Northern Arizona University, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Flagstaff, AZ 86011, U.S.A.
2
National Security Technologies LLC, Las Vegas, NV, 89193, U.S.A
3
Brigham Young University, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Provo, UT, 84604,
U.S.A
We have constructed a low cost, portable, battery7powered quadrupole mass spectrometer
for use in the analysis of gaseous, liquid or solid field samples. The system may be configured
for continuous sampling of ambient gas samples, or for the analysis of small solid, liquid or gas
samples in sealed glass vials. The system is capable of measuring partial pressures down to the
10
710
Torr range, and may be operated on battery power for several hours in a field deployment.
In this paper, we present information on the design and testing of the instrument, as well as data
taken on chlorinated hydrocarbons and other contaminants in water.
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Field portable mass spectrometers have numerous demonstrated applications in areas
such as environmental monitoring, industrial processes and monitoring, defense applications, and
many others. Many of these instruments use technologies such as time7of7flight (Kore
Technology, UK, Spectro Analytical, UK, tiny TOF, Johns Hopkins, others), quadrupole (SRS,
Sunnyvale, CA, Bruker, MA, others), or GC/MS (ICX Technologies, Washington, DC, Inficon
Syracuse, NY, others). Many of these instruments are not, however, truly self contained in a
single package. For example, quadrupole7based mass spectrometers may not contain internal
battery packs, data acquisition and display, or other components in a single, portable package.
Many of these systems also use proprietary components, and have a high initial cost of
acquisition.
In this paper, we describe a fully portable quadrupole7based mass spectrometer system,
built largely from off7the7shelf parts at a very low overall cost. The suitcase7sized system
contains an integrated battery pack, miniature laptop computer for instrument control and data
acquisition, quadrupole mass spectrometer, vacuum system, and gas inlet system. This system
may also be configured for the analysis of small liquid, solid or gas samples in sealed glass vials.
The quadrupole mass spectrometer is capable of measuring partial pressures in gas samples
down to 10
710
Torr. We have tested this system in continuous ambient gas monitoring mode as
well as on enclosed liquid samples.
%!& " %’#
A schematic diagram of the basic mass spectrometer system is shown in figure 1, while a
photograph of the layout of the instrument components inside of the case is shown in figure 2.
Mater. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 1169 © 2009 Materials Research Society 1169-Q06-10