Development of a Transportable High-Speed GC for the Assessment of Toxins in Breath

The goal of this Phase I SBIR proposal is to develop a technically innovative high-speed GC for analysis of breath samples to assess body burden and metabolism of toxins. This instrument will be transportable yet deliver laboratory quality results which is lacking in currently available transportable GC's. Detection limits of 0.01 parts-per-billion will be achieved with this instrument. It will be able to collect a breath sample for analysis within 1-2 minutes without the need for water removal. This compares with a cycle time of over 20 minutes for standard GC methods using Tenax traps. With this novel instrument sample integrity will be maintained since the sample is collected and then immediately analyzed. The sample will not need to be transported from the collection point to the instrument. In order to accomplish these goals, the following objectives will be met: the current inlet system will be redesined to provide enhanced sensitivity with short cycle times; the use of selective detectors will be investigated to further improve detection limits and screen interferences; two unique sampling interfaces will be developed for sample containers and direct breath collection; and finally, alternative cooling and a transportable GC platform will be investigated.