LASER MASS-SPECTROMETRY FOR TIME-RESOLVED MULTICOMPONENT ANALYSIS OF EXHAUST-GAS

A new analytical method for the fast analysis of trace substances in g as mixtures has been developed incorporating a pulsed tunable laser sy stem and a reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The technique is especially designed for the time-resolved detection of air pollutan ts in the exhaust gas of motor engines. The purpose of this new analyt ical method is to achieve high time resolution (<100 ms), high sensiti vity (down to 1 ppm), high quantitative precision (10%), and applicabi lity to most exhaust emission components. The main difficulties for th e analysis arise from the large number of components which show very d ifferent and rapidly varying concentrations. For a preliminary list of 25 exhaust emission components, all essential prameters have been det ermined. First results obtained from a real exhaust gas sample are pre sented.