Grantee Research Project Results
2016 Progress Report: 3-dimensional Micro-gas Chromatography Device for Rapid and Sensitive Indoor Chemical Exposure Analysis
EPA Grant Number: R835644Title: 3-dimensional Micro-gas Chromatography Device for Rapid and Sensitive Indoor Chemical Exposure Analysis
Investigators: Fan, Xudong , Richardson, Rudy J , Kurabayashi, Katsuo
Current Investigators: Fan, Xudong , Kurabayashi, Katsuo , Richardson, Rudy J
Institution: University of Michigan
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: August 1, 2014 through July 31, 2017
Project Period Covered by this Report: August 1, 2015 through July 31,2016
Project Amount: $900,000
RFA: New Methods in 21st Century Exposure Science (2013) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Chemical Safety for Sustainability
Objective:
This project will develop a portable, field-deployable device to perform automated, rapid, sensitive, and in-situ analysis of hundreds of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds for indoor air exposure assessment.
Progress Summary:
- We have optimized, fabricated, and characterized all components, including pre-concentrator, thermal injector, micro-separation column, and detector. In particular, we invented 1x4 micro-Deans switches, which allow us to split the analyte from an upstream column to any of four downstream columns.
- We invented a helium dielectric barrier discharge photo-ionization detector (HDBD-PID). It has the following advantages over the commercial PID:
- Extremely light (0.25 g, 22 g if power is included) and small (quarter size)
- Low cost (total cost <$10)
- Low power consumption (<400 mW)
- Rapid warm-up time (<5 min)
- Long lifetime, almost infinite (regular PID, 1,000 hours)
- High sensitivity (pico-gram, or 1 ppt in 1 L air sample), as sensitive as or even more sensitive than FID (flame ionization detector)
- Provide high UV photon energy (17.5 eV, higher than 10.6 eV seen in commercial PID). Many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be detected such as Freon, methane, dichlorofluoromethane, phosgene, and chlorine trifluoride, which cannot be detected by existing PIDs.
- Low helium consumption
- We constructed the first of its kind, a fully automated portable 1x4-channel 2-dimensional comprehensive gas chromatography (GC), which can separate 50 VOCs in 13 minutes. The peak capacity production (peak capacity divided by separation time) rivals regular bench-top GC.
- We are working with the paint workshop on the University of Michigan campus to measure the worker exposure in real-time and benchmark our results against conventional industrial hygiene methods.
Future Activities:
- We will continue to optimize our PID design to further improve its performance.
- We will move forward to build a 3-D GC with all control and user-interface software.
- We will test 100-150 VOCs and build a reference library.
- We will duplicate a 2-D and 3-D GC so that one can be placed in the paint workshop to validate its performance, while the other one is placed in the lab for research and optimization.
- We will conduct further validation and benchmark against standard EPA methods.
Journal Articles on this Report : 4 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 18 publications | 5 publications in selected types | All 5 journal articles |
|---|
| Type | Citation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Lee J, Zhou M, Zhu H, Nidetz R, Kurabayashi K, Fan X. In situ calibration of micro-photoionization detectors in a multi-dimensional micro-gas chromatography system. Analyst 2016;141(13):4100-4107. |
R835644 (2016) R835644 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Lee J, Zhou M, Zhu H, Nidetz R, Kurabayashi K, Fan X. Fully automated portable comprehensive 2-dimensional gas chromatography device. Analytical Chemistry 2016;88(20):10266-10274. |
R835644 (2016) R835644 (Final) |
Exit |
|
|
Zhou M, Lee J, Zhu H, Nidetz R, Kurabayashi K, Fan X. A fully automated portable gas chromatography system for sensitive and rapid quantification of volatile organic compounds in water. RSC Advances 2016;6(55):49416-49424. |
R835644 (2016) R835644 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
|
|
Zhu H, Zhou M, Lee J, Nidetz R, Kurabayashi K, Fan X. Low-power miniaturized helium dielectric barrier discharge photoionization detectors for highly sensitive vapor detection. Analytical Chemistry 2016;88(17):8780-8786. |
R835644 (2016) R835644 (Final) |
Exit |
Supplemental Keywords:
Micro-GC, VOC analysis, air sample, exposome, analytical, measurement methodsRelevant Websites:
The Fan Lab | University of Michigan Biomedical Engineering ExitProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.