Trace Organic Chemical Detection Using an Ultraviolet Excitation Molecular Beam Fluorometer

Detection of air-borne environmental contaminants, such as organic solvents, requires unambiguous compound identification and sensitivity to concentrations below those permitted by regulating agencies. One promising detection approach uses a pulsed supersonic molecular beam vacuum expansion in combination with fluorescence signal spectral analysis to identify species in a chemical mixture. Expanding a contaminated atmospheric sample through a supersonic molecular beam expansion acts to cool the sample and greatly reduce the spectral density in a fluorescence or photoionization spectrum. Most organic contaminants of interest have electronic transitions in the ultraviolet with near-featureless broad band fluorescence spectra when recorded at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. By using a supersonic vacuum expansion, cooling to within a few degrees of absolute zero can reduce the effective rotational and translational temperatures of the sample molecules and provide a sharply defined spectra which can be used to unambiguously identify specific molecules and their concentrations.