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THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH OF THE OVERLAP EFFECTS IN THE QUADRUPOLE MASS SPECTROMETRIC ANALYSIS OF HYDROGEN ISOTOPES MIXTURES Alina Stefanescu1 , Nicolae Bidica1, Anisia Bornea1, Ion Cristescu2, Mihai Varlam1, Ioan Stefanescu1 1National Research and Development Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies - ICIT Rm. Valcea, code 240050 - Rm. Valcea, Uzinei 4, CP7 Raureni, Valcea, Romania
To measure the concentration of hydrogen isotopic species in gaseous streams of hydrogen isotopes mixtures sampled from a cryogenic separation column, we intend to use a GSD 320 quadrupole mass spectrometer. In order to consistently generate measurements of high precision and reliability, an extensive knowledge of instrumental effects and their underlying causes, and appropriate laboratory procedures for calibrating and performing the mass spectrometric analysis are required. The major problems of mass spectrometric isotopic analysis (especially in the case of hydrogen isotopes) are the overlap effects and contributions. Development of experimental procedures and correction algorithms for the mass 2 and mass 3 due to the following contributions to the peaks measured by the mass spectrometer:
Thus, the mass-to-charge 2 and 3 ion currents must be corrected for the presence of H2+ and D+, H3+ and HD+ respectively ions formed inside the ion source if an accurate measurement of HD concentration in the gas sample is to be made. The correction algorithms, the experimental procedures and the experimental results are presented in this work. The standard gas mixtures will be prepared in our laboratory by the pressure partial methode. We will use pure gases (H2 and D2) and equilibrated gas mixtures of H2, HD and D2 for mass-to-charge 2, 3 and 4 calibrations. The experimental set-up and procedure for equilibrating the gas mixtures, and concentrations calculus for the gas mixtures components (H2, HD and D2) are also presented in this paper. KEYWORDS: mass spectrometry, hydrogen isotopes species. |