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Abstract
The presence of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) in the environment is a serious threat to human safety, but there are many problems with the currently available detection methods for CWAs. For example, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry cannot be used for in-field detection owing to the rather large size of the equipment required, while commercial sensors have the disadvantages of low sensitivity and poor selectivity. Here, we develop a portable gas sensing instrument for CWA detection that consists of a MEMS-fabricated micro-preconcentrator (μPC) and a film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) gas sensor. The μPC is coated with a nanoporous metal–organic framework material to enrich the target, while the FBAR provides rapid detection without the need for extra carrier gas. Dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), a simulant of the chemical warfare agent sarin, is used to test the performance of the instrument. Experimental results show that the μPC provides effective sample pretreatment, while the FBAR gas sensor has good sensitivity to DMMP vapor. The combination of μPC and FBAR in one instrument gives full play to their respective advantages, reducing the limit of detection of the analyte. Moreover, both the μPC and the FBAR are fabricated using a CMOS-compatible approach, and the prototype instrument is compact in size with high portability and thus has potential for application to in-field detection of CWAs.
Highlights
Chemical warfare agents (CWAs), first used in World War I, cause serious, often fatal, damage to the human body owing to their high toxicity and ability to spread rapidly through the atmosphere.1 According to the clinical manifestations after intoxication, CWAs can be classified into a variety of different types, such as nerve agents, blister agents, asphyxiants, and incapacitating agents (e.g., 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, QNB)
This paper presents a prototype of a new portable instrument for in-field detection of CWAs
Dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) vapor at 1 ppm with a flow rate of 100 ml/min was introduced into the device, and the effluent stream was continuously monitored by a downstream flame ionization detector (FID, Agilent, 7890B)
Summary
Chemical warfare agents (CWAs), first used in World War I, cause serious, often fatal, damage to the human body owing to their high toxicity and ability to spread rapidly through the atmosphere. According to the clinical manifestations after intoxication, CWAs can be classified into a variety of different types, such as nerve agents (e.g., sarin and soman), blister agents (e.g., mustard gas), asphyxiants (e.g., phosgene and chlorine), and incapacitating agents (e.g., 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, QNB). According to the clinical manifestations after intoxication, CWAs can be classified into a variety of different types, such as nerve agents (e.g., sarin and soman), blister agents (e.g., mustard gas), asphyxiants (e.g., phosgene and chlorine), and incapacitating agents (e.g., 3-quinuclidinyl benzilate, QNB). A wide variety of techniques have been reported for detection of CWAs, such as traditional analytical chemistry methods and various sensors based on different mechanisms.. As a standard CWA scitation.org/journal/npe identification method in the laboratory, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has the advantages of high sensitivity and excellent reliability.. To meet the needs of field detection, different types of sensing systems have been developed, including ion mobility spectrometers, quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs), surface acoustic wavelength (SAW) detectors, flame photometry detectors, and fluorescence-based sensors.. To meet the needs of field detection, different types of sensing systems have been developed, including ion mobility spectrometers, quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs), surface acoustic wavelength (SAW) detectors, flame photometry detectors, and fluorescence-based sensors. there remain some problems with these sensors, they have the advantages of being small and easy to carry, cheap, and simple to operate, all of which give them great potential for practical application
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