Compact Portable QEPAS Multi-gas Sensor

A quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) based multi-gas sensor was developed to quantify concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN), hydrogen chloride (HCl), and carbon dioxide (CO2) in ambient air. The sensor assembled in a compact package of dimensions 25cm x 25cm x 10cm was designed to operate at atmospheric pressure. The HCN, CO2, and HCl measurement channels are based on cw, C-band telecommunication-style packaged, fiber-coupled diode lasers, while the CO channel uses a TO can-packaged Sb diode laser as an excitation source. The sensor incorporates rechargeable batteries and can run on batteries for at least 8 hours. It can also operate autonomously or interact with another device (such as a computer) via a RS232 serial port. Trace gas detection limits of 7.74ppm at 4288.29cm-1 for CO, 450ppb at 6539.11 cm-1 for HCN, 1.48ppm at 5739.26 cm-1 for HCl and 97ppm at 6361.25 cm-1 for CO2 for a 1sec average time, were demonstrated