Use of time-of-flight mass spectrometry for monitoring helium microcontamination in the industrial manufacture of extra high purity inert gases

A time-of-flight EMG-20-9 mass spectrometer was designed for the online monitoring of helium impurity at the 0.05 ppm level. The spectrometer was introduced for the continuous control of the gas mixture composition in the technology of neon purification from the helium impurity in spite of the large difference in the concentrations of components. The instrument was certified as a measuring facility and introduced into the State Register of Measurement Instrumentation of the Russian Federation. The characteristics of the mass spectrometer and its modifications were overviewed and its possibilities for monitoring xenon and krypton production from air were shown. Keywords: high-purity gases, helium, neon, krypton, xenon, time-of-flight mass spectrometer, linear mass reflection, process mass spectrometry, V-type mass reflectron DOI: 10.1134/S1061934810140145
INTRODUCTION To date, the main industrial gas analyzers appear to be flow chromatographs. They are simple and reliable in exploitation. Among the disadvantages of chromatographs one may refer to the [...]