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Development of a Sensitive Monitor for Hydrazine
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English
Abstract
Hydrazine (N2H4) and monomethylhydrazine (MMH) are used as propellants in several space-based applications, in which exposure limits as low as 2 ppb have been proposed. This paper reviews the development of hand-held, ambient-temperature instruments that use ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) in the detection of hydrazine and MMH. An instrument, based on early designs, detected hydrazine at 6 ppb with no interference from vapors except for ammonia, but exhibited slow response and recovery times. Performance of a hand-held IMS instrument that used water-reagent ion chemistry was unacceptable. An alternative, using acetone as the dopant reagent, also proved unacceptable, because ammonia-acetone clusters produced substantial interference in the detection of MMH. The goal of the present development effort was to eliminate ammonia interference through altering the ionization chemistry. This was achieved using ion chemistry based on adding 5-nonanone as dopant in the ionization region of the IMS. This modification gave product ion drift times for MMH and ammonia of 12 and 14 ms, respectively, with a linear range from 10 to 600 ppb. Slow response and recovery was found to be improved by elevating the membrane and inlet temperatures. Calibration of this instrument performed before and after Space Shuttle mission STS-37 revealed no more than 5% difference between calibration curves, with no notable loss of equipment function.
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Eiceman, G., Limero, T., and James, J., "Development of a Sensitive Monitor for Hydrazine," SAE Technical Paper 911477, 1991, https://doi.org/10.4271/911477.Also In
References
- American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, 1990-1991 Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances and Physical Agents and Biological Exposure Indices ACGIH Cincinnati, OH 1990
- Leasure, C.S. Eiceman G.A. Continuous detection of hydrazine and monomethylhydrazine using ion mobility spectrometry Analytical Chemistry 57 1890 1894 1985
- Proctor, J. Todd J.F.J. Alternative reagent ions for plasma chromatography Analytical Chemistry 56 1794 1797 1984
- Young, R. A report on test results on ion mobility spectrometry detection of hydrazines Toxic Vapor Detection Laboratory, Kennedy Space Center FL June 26 1989 Young R. May 7 1991
- Taffe, P.A. Rose-Pehrsson S.L. Wyatt J.R. Material compatibility with threshold limit value levels of monomethyl hydrazine Naval Research Laboratory Memorandum Report 6291 Washington, DC October 26 1988