Pulsed sampling-based ion mobility spectrometer and sniffer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11346807-B2
Application number	US-201916626767-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 12, 2019
Priority date	Sep 6, 2018
Publication date	May 31, 2022
Grant date	May 31, 2022

Abstract

There are provided an ion mobility spectrometer and a sniffer. The ion mobility spectrometer includes: an ion migration tube; a sampling gas path having a sampling device configured to temporarily store a sample gas collected by a sampling head in a sampling pipe; a sample introduction gas path having two ends in communication with the gas inlet and outlet of the ion migration tube respectively, and configured to introduce a carrier gas within the ion migration tube into the sampling pipe and to carry a sample gas temporarily stored in the sampling pipe into the ion migration tube; and a valve assembly configured to only allow gas to flow from the sampling device to the sampling pipe in a sampling state, and to only allow gas to flow from the ion migration tube through the sampling pipe back to the ion migration tube in a sample introduction state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A pulsed sampling-based ion mobility spectrometer, wherein comprising:
an ion migration tube provided with a gas inlet into which a sample gas and a carrier gas flow, a gas outlet from which a gas flows out and a migration gas inlet into which a migration gas flows;
a sampling gas path in which a sampling device is arranged, the sampling device comprising a sampling head and a sampling pipe, the sampling head having an outlet in communication with an inlet of the sampling pipe, the sampling gas path being configured to temporarily store the sample gas collected by the sampling head in the sampling pipe;
a sample introduction gas path having two ends in communication with the gas inlet and the gas outlet of the ion migration tube respectively, the sampling pipe being connected in parallel to the sample introduction gas path, the sample introduction gas path being configured to introduce the carrier gas within the ion migration tube into the sampling pipe and to carry the sample gas temporarily stored in the sampling pipe into the ion migration tube; and
a valve assembly configured to only allow gas to flow from the sampling device to the sampling pipe in a sampling state, and to only allow gas to flow from the ion migration tube via the sampling pipe back to the ion migration tube in a sample introduction state.

2. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 1 , wherein the valve assembly comprises a first three-way valve having a first port in communication with the outlet of the sampling device, a second port in communication with the gas outlet of the ion migration tube and a third port in communication with the inlet of the sampling pipe.

3. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 2 , wherein further comprising a circulation gas path including a migration gas circulation path and a sample introduction carrier gas circulation path, the migration gas circulation path having two ends in communication with the gas outlet and the migration gas inlet of the ion migration tube respectively so as to introduce the migration gas into the ion migration tube from a rear end thereof, the sample introduction carrier gas circulation path having two ends in communication with the gas outlet and the gas inlet of the ion migration tube respectively so as to introduce the carrier gas into the ion migration tube from a rear end thereof.

4. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 3 , wherein the ion migration tube includes an integrated dual-mode full-ceramic migration tube, and there are provided two said migration gas circulation paths having outlet ends in communication with migration gas inlets of two ion migration tubes of the integrated dual-mode full-ceramic migration tube in a one-to-one correspondence.

5. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 3 , wherein a first flow control valve is arranged in the migration gas circulation path to control a gas flow in the migration gas circulation path.

6. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 3 , wherein further comprising a first pump provided downstream of the ion migration tube in a gas flow direction and configured to drive a gas flow.

7. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 6 , wherein further comprising a first buffer chamber arranged in series in the sample introduction gas path between the ion migration tube and the first pump.

8. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 7 , wherein further comprising a second flow control valve arranged in series in the sample introduction gas path between the ion migration tube and the first buffer chamber.

9. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 8 , characterized by further comprising a second buffer chamber arranged in series in the sample introduction gas path between the first pump and the first three-way valve;
preferably, an inlet end of the migration gas circulation path and an inlet end of the sample introduction carrier gas circulation path are both in communication with a gas exhaust port of the second buffer chamber, and the second port of the first three-way valve is in communication with the gas exhaust port of the second buffer chamber.

10. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 9 , wherein
the valve assembly further comprises a second three-way valve,
the inlet end of the sample introduction carrier gas circulation path is in communication with the sample introduction gas path via the second three-way valve at a connection position between the second buffer chamber and the first three-way valve, and
the second three-way valve is configured to only allow a part of the gas to flow from the second buffer chamber through the sample introduction gas path to the sampling pipe in the sample introduction state, and to only allow the gas to flow from the second buffer chamber through the sample introduction carrier gas circulation path to the ion migration tube in an internal circulation state.

11. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 9 , wherein further comprising a first purification filter arranged in the sample introduction gas path between the first pump and the second buffer chamber and configured to filter gas flowing through the sample introduction gas path.

12. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 11 , wherein further comprising a gas replenishing/discharging path for replenishing gas into the ion migration tube or for discharging gas from the ion mobility spectrometer, the gas replenishing/discharging path having a first end in communication with the gas outlet of the ion migration tube and a second end in communication with an external environment.

13. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 12 , wherein a second purification filter is arranged in the gas replenishing/discharging path.

14. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 13 , wherein,
the valve assembly further comprises a third three-way valve,
the first end of the gas replenishing/discharging path is in communication with the sample introduction gas path via the third three-way valve at a connection position between the first pump and the first purification filter, and
the third three-way valve is configured to only allow gas to flow from the first pump to the first purification filter in the sample introduction state, to only allow gas to flow from the first pump to the second purification filter in a gas discharging state, and to only allow gas to flow from the second purification filter to the first pump in a gas replenishing state.

15. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 14 , wherein a water trap filter is further arranged in the gas replenishing/discharging path between the second purification filter and the external environment.

16. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 1 , wherein a second pump is further arranged in the sampling gas path to drive gas flow.

17. The ion mobility spectrometer according to claim 16 , wherein further comprising a gas suctioning and cleaning path having two ends being in communication with an outlet of the second pump and an external environment respectively, the second pump being arranged at downstream of the sampling gas path in a gas flow direction;
wherein, the valve assembly further comprises a fourth three-way valve arranged in the gas suctioning and cleaning path between the second pump and the sampling pipe, the fourth three-way valve being configured to only allow gas to flow from the sampling pipe to the second pump in a gas suctioning and cleaning state and to only allow gas to flow from the sampling pipe to the

Assignees

• Nuctech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhang Qingjun
• Li Yuanjing
• Chen Zhiqiang
• Li Jianmin
• Liu Yinong
• Liu Yaohong
• Yan Lili
• Cao Biao
• Zhu Weiping
• Li Ge
• Ma Qiufeng
• Mao Qi
• Bai Nan

Classifications

• G01N1/2247

  Sampling from a flowing stream of gas · CPC title

• G01N27/622 Primary

  Ion mobility spectrometry · CPC title

• H01J49/0422 Primary

  for gaseous samples (interfaces to gas chromatographs G01N30/7206) · CPC title

• H01J49/0495

  Vacuum locks; Valves (valves per se F16K) · CPC title

• G01N1/22

  in the gaseous state {(specially adapted for biological material G01N33/497; measuring breath flow A61B5/087)} · CPC title