Joost de Gouw has over two decades of experience developing, characterizing and using proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) for measuring volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in air. He developed routine ways to calibrate the instrument, optimized the sensitivity and described the humidity dependence as a function of the primary ion distribution. He used PTR-MS with gas-chromatographic interfaces to determine which VOCs can contribute to the detection of specific product ions. He collaborated on the development of a PTR-MS instrument with an ion-trap mass spectrometer that allowed more chemical detail to be obtained by tandem mass spectrometry. In recent years, he has collaborated with Tofwerk AG and Aerodyne Research Inc. on the development and characterization of the Vocus PTR-TOF, which represents the current state of the art in PTR-MS.

We are currently working on the characterization of the Vocus PTR-TOF for VOCs detected during our indoor studies and intend to look for these same compounds in measurements in urban air.

We have also collected information on the detection of VOCs by proton-transfer reactions with H3O+ ions into one data repository. Users can search for a VOC of interest, or can search for a product ion mass and find which VOCs are detected at that mass. The library may also be useful as a data set to research instrument sensitivity and product ion fragmentation. A paper describing the library has been submitted.

Collaborators

Bill Kuster, Carsten Warneke (NOAA & CIRES), Abby Koss (MIT), Bin Yuan (Jinan Univ.), Megan Claflin, Jordan Krechmer, Brian Lerner, Doug Worsnop (Aerodyne), Katrin Fuhrer, Marc Gonin, Manuel Hutterli, Felipe Lopez-Hilfiker (Tofwerk), Ned Lovejoy

Key Publications

• 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.

• Lerner, B. M., Gilman, J. B., Aikin, K. C., Atlas, E. L., Goldan, P. D., Graus, M., Hendershot, R., Isaacman-VanWertz, G. A., Koss, A. R., Kuster, W. C., Lueb, R. A., McLaughlin, R. J., Peischl, J., Sueper, D., Ryerson, T. B., Tokarek, T. W., Warneke, C., Yuan, B. and de Gouw, J. A.: An Improved, Automated Whole-Air Sampler and Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry Analysis System for Volatile Organic Compounds in the Atmosphere, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 291–313, doi:10.5194/amt-10-291-2017, 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, doi:10.1002/mas.20119, 2007.

• Claflin, M. S., Pagonis, D., Finewax, Z., Handschy, A. V., Day, D. A., Brown, W. L., Jayne, J. T., Worsnop, D. R., Jimenez, J. L., Ziemann, P. J., de Gouw, J. A. and Lerner, B. M.: An in situ gas chromatograph with automatic detector switching between Vocus PTR-TOF-MS and EI-TOF-MS: Isomer resolved measurements of indoor air, Atmos. Meas. Tech., Accepted, doi:10.5194/amt-2020-271, 2020.