TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kürten, Christoph Andreas
A1  - Rondo, Linda
A1  - Ehrhart, Sebastian
A1  - Curtius, Joachim
T1  - Performance of a corona ion source for measurement of sulfuric acid by chemical ionization mass spectrometry [Discussion paper]
T2  - Atmospheric measurement techniques discussions
N2  - The performance of an ion source based on corona discharge has been studied. This source is used for the detection of gaseous sulfuric acid by chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS) through the reaction of NO3– ions with H2SO4. The ion source is operated under atmospheric pressure and its design is similar to the one of a radioactive (Americium 241) ion source which has been used previously. Our results show that the detection limit for the corona ion source is sufficiently good for most applications. For an integration time of one minute it is ~6 × 104 molecules of H2SO4 per cm3. In addition, only a small cross-sensitivity to SO2 has been observed for concentrations as high as 1 ppmv in the sample gas. This low sensitivity to SO2 is achieved even without the addition of an OH scavenger. When comparing the new corona ion source with the americium ion source for the same provided H2SO4 concentration, both ion sources yield almost identical values. These features make the corona ion source investigated here favorable over the more commonly used radioactive ion sources for most applications where H2SO4 is measured by CIMS.
Y1  - 2011
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/23475
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-234757
SN  - 1867-8610
N1  - © Author(s) 2010. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
VL  - 3
SP  - 5295
EP  - 5312
PB  - Copernicus
CY  - Katlenburg-Lindau
ER  -