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Modular and reconfigurable gas chromatography/differential mobility spectrometry (GC/DMS) package for detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

  • Original Research
  • Published:
International Journal for Ion Mobility Spectrometry

Abstract

Due to the versatility of present day microcontroller boards and open source development environments, new analytical chemistry devices can now be built outside of large industry and instead within smaller individual groups. While there are a wide range of commercial devices available for detecting and identifying volatile organic compounds (VOCs), most of these devices use their own proprietary software and complex custom electronics, making modifications or reconfiguration of the systems challenging. The development of microprocessors for general use, such as the Arduino prototyping platform, now enables custom chemical analysis instrumentation. We have created an example system using commercially available parts, centered around on differential mobility spectrometer (DMS) device. The Modular Reconfigurable Gas Chromatography - Differential Mobility Spectrometry package (MR-GC-DMS) has swappable components allowing it to be quickly reconfigured for specific application purposes as well as broad, generic use. The MR-GC-DMS has a custom user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) and precisely tuned proportional-integral-derivative controller (PID) feedback control system managing individual temperature-sensitive components. Accurate temperature control programmed into the microcontroller greatly increases repeatability and system performance. Together, this open-source platform enables researchers to quickly combine DMS devices in customized configurations for new chemical sensing applications.

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Acknowledgements

Partial support was provided by: NIH award U01 EB0220003-01 (CED, NJK); NSF award #1255915 (CED); NIH award UG3-OD023365 (CED, NJK); the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) through grant #UL1 TR000002 (CED, NJK); and NIH award 1P30ES023513-01A1 (CED, NJK). Student support was partially provided by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Post-9/11 GI-Bill (DJP), and the National Science Foundation award 1343479 Veteran’s Research Supplement (DJP). The contents of this manuscript are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. The authors would like to thank members of Richard Bostock’s laboratory, especially Tatiana Roubtsova, for making their rhododendron plants available for VOC sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Ilya M. Anishchenko, Mitchell M. McCartney, Alexander G. Fung, Daniel J. Peirano, Michael J. Schirle & Cristina E. Davis

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, University of California, 4150 V Street, Suite 3400, Davis, Sacramento, CA, 95817, USA

    Nicholas J. Kenyon

  3. Center for Comparative Respiratory Biology and Medicine, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Nicholas J. Kenyon

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  1. Ilya M. Anishchenko
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  2. Mitchell M. McCartney
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  7. Cristina E. Davis
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Correspondence to Cristina E. Davis.

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Daniel J. Peirano is presently at Google, Inc.

Michael J. Schirle is presently at Gener8, Inc.

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Anishchenko, I.M., McCartney, M.M., Fung, A.G. et al. Modular and reconfigurable gas chromatography/differential mobility spectrometry (GC/DMS) package for detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Int. J. Ion Mobil. Spec. 21, 125–136 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12127-018-0240-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12127-018-0240-4

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