The Vocus Proton-Transfer-Reaction Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometer allows measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air with a high senstivity (less than 1 pptv) and a fast time response (less than 1 sec).

Proton-Transfer-Reaction Library

We have collected information on the detection of various VOCs using proton-transfer reactions with H3O+ ions in a library.

Publications on Vocus PTR-TOF 

Jensen, A., Koss, A. R., Hales, R., and de Gouw, J. A.: Measurements of VOCs in ambient air by Vocus PTR-TOF-MS: calibrations, instrument background corrections, and introducing a PTR Data Toolkit, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5261–5285, doi:10.5194/amt-16-5261-2023, 2023.

Krechmer, J. E., Lopez-Hilfiker, F. D., Koss, A. R., Hutterli, M. A., Stoermer, C., Deming, B. L., Kimmel, J. R., Warneke, C., Holzinger, R., Jayne, J. T., Worsnop, D. R., Fuhrer, K., Gonin, M. and de Gouw, J. A.: Evaluation of a New Reagent-Ion Source and Focusing Ion-Molecule Reactor for use in Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry, Anal. Chem., 90, 12011–12018, doi:10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02641, 2018.

Publications on PTR-MS

Pagonis, D., Sekimoto, K. and de Gouw, J. A.: A library of proton-transfer reactions of H3O+ ions used for trace gas detection, J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom., 30, 1330–1335, doi:10.1007/s13361-019-02209-3, 2019.

Yuan, B., Koss, A. R., Warneke, C., Coggon, M., Sekimoto, K. and de Gouw, J. A.: Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometry: Applications in Atmospheric Sciences, Chem. Rev., 117(21), 13187–13229, doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.7b00325, 2017.

Sekimoto, K., Li, S.-M., Yuan, B., Koss, A., Coggon, M., Warneke, C. and de Gouw, J. A.: Calculation of the sensitivity of proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) for organic trace gases using molecular properties, Int. J. Mass Spectrom., 421, 71–94, doi:10.1016/j.ijms.2017.04.006, 2017.

de Gouw, J. A. and Warneke, C.: Measurements of volatile organic compounds in the Earth’s atmosphere using proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry, Mass Spec. Rev., 26, 223–257, 2007.