Browsing by Author "Mogenson, Cole Mitchell"

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    Characteristics of a Novel Alkali Flame Ionization Detector as an Air Sensor for Volatile Organonitrogen Compounds
    (2023-05-05) Mogenson, Cole Mitchell; Thurbide, Kevin; Kimura-Hara, Susana; Anikovskiy, Max; Thangadurai, Venkataraman
    This thesis describes the introduction and characterization of a novel alkali flame ionization detector (AFID) for use as an air sensor for organonitrogen compounds without any chromatographic separation. Using a planar channelled quartz design, a simple, lightweight architecture for the portable device is presented, which yields a sensitive and selective response toward nitrogen-containing analytes over hydrocarbons. For instance, the AFID sensor offers a detection limit of 30 pg N/s and a selectivity for nitrogen response over carbon of nearly two orders of magnitude. Further, the nitrogen response was linear over the 1000-fold range of concentrations investigated. Relative to a flame photometric detector (FPD) device also used in a sensor mode under optimal conditions, the AFID was observed to provide over a 160 times greater S/N value for nitrogen analytes with a selectivity of nitrogen over carbon that was about 16.6 times larger. When using the AFID and FPD sensors in tandem, it was found that the response ratio of the simultaneous signals generated by each produced characteristic signal ratio values that more clearly identified the presence or absence of nitrogen in unknown analytes. The AFID sensor was also used to detect organonitrogen analytes in several sample matrices. Results indicate that signal response was largely unaffected by these potentially interfering sample conditions, and thus this method could be a valuable approach for portable air sensing of nitrogen compounds.