An effective method for detecting nitrous oxide using alkaline washing and GC-MS†

Abstract

Nitrous oxide (N₂O) is generally detected by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) which has become a popular method in current research and applications. However, N₂O and CO₂ have the same molecular mass and comparable physical characteristics, posing significant challenges to complete separation and accurate detection of N₂O. For this purpose, a simple and effective method for detecting nitrous oxide using alkaline washing and GC-MS was proposed. The method first uses an alkaline washing technique to remove CO₂ from the gas sample, followed by the detection of N₂O using GC-MS. To systematically evaluate the effectiveness of this method in removing CO₂ and detecting N₂O, a series of experiments were conducted. The experimental results showed that the interference of CO₂ was successfully eliminated, achieving the limit of detection (LOD) for N₂O of 0.01 μL mL⁻¹, with the relative standard deviation (RSD) of less than 10%. The method was simple and effective, and does not require specific instruments or chromatographic columns to detect N₂O from the sample even in the presence of CO₂, making it highly promising for accurate monitoring of nitrous oxide.