Development of an IMS Type Device for Volatile Organic Compunds Detection: Simulation and Comparision of the Ion Distributions

TL;DR

This paper presents a simulation-based study of an IMS device with a crown discharge for detecting volatile organic compounds, analyzing ion distributions and demonstrating potential for compound identification.

Contribution

It introduces a novel IMS design with a crown discharge and compares simulation results with experiments, highlighting the device's fingerprinting capability.

Findings

Simulation qualitatively matches experimental ion distributions.

PCA analysis effectively distinguishes different organic compounds.

Device shows promise for rapid VOC detection and identification.

Abstract

Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS) is a well-known, sensitive and rapid technique to detect dangerous organic compounds. We propose a system in which a crown type discharge generates a ionic flow that is swept towards an array of collectors by a transverse electric field. The ions are separated as they enter the cell according to their mobility. Thus, the distribution of the charge deposited at the detector assembly constitutes a {\em fingerprint} for each organic compound. Simulations of our cell and experiments were performed for small amounts of acetone, ethanol and toluene. The dependence on the cell parameters of the current and charge versus time of flight was analyzed. Our simulation reproduces only qualitatively the experimental results. However, a PCA statistical analysis of the results obtained by simulation of the proposed design shows that the fingerprint is useful for a clear identification of such compounds.