一氧化碳气体自动进样装置及其同位素测试方法研究

An Automatic Injection Device and the Method for Carbon and Oxygen Isotopes Analyses of Carbon Monoxide

  • 摘要: 在测试混合气体中一氧化碳(CO)的碳和氧同位素时,样品中的CO2和N2会严重影响结果的精密度和准确度。本文研制了CO气体自动分离纯化进样装置,并与气体稳定同位素质谱仪(IRMS)联用,利用色谱柱分离和阀切换技术将混合样品气体中N2、CO2和水分子等杂质组分排空,仅纯化后的CO在线进入IRMS进行测试。采用本方法测试CO气体浓度在300~20 000 μL/L之间的标准气体,其浓度值与m/z 28、29和30离子峰面积之和呈良好的线性关系,相关系数(R2)为0.999。当CO浓度高于1 000 μL/L时,其碳氧同位素值的标准偏差均小于0.4‰。当CO的碳和氧同位素差值在0.5‰以内,采用移动平均值法计算其浓度检出限分别为1 500和2 000 μL/L。利用该装置和方法长期(6个月)测试CO标准气体(4 000 μL/L),δ13C和δ18O的标准偏差分别为0.26‰和0.47‰(n=20)。使用本方法测试实际样品煤层气CO的δ13C和δ18O标准偏差均小于0.5‰,表明该自动进样装置和方法的精密度和稳定性能够满足实验测试要求。

     

    Abstract: Carbon monoxide (CO) is an essential component of air, and it arises from anthropogenic sources and natural sources. These different sources of CO have significant differences in carbon and oxygen isotopic values, therefore the carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of CO is important for the sources and sink of CO in environmental research. In addition, the isotopic composition of CO in coal beds can help to explore the origin and deposit of coal, the self-heating and spontaneous combustion of coal, which benefits for coal mine safety management. At present, CO isotopic compositions are mainly analyzed by optical spectroscopy or gas chromatography-isotope ratio mass spectrometer (GC-IRMS). The optical spectroscopy method is mainly used in the studies on theoretical CO isotope effects, but its analytical precision is low. GC-IRMS for CO isotopic composition analysis usually requires manual injection, resulting in low efficiency, and it is easily influenced by operation. Meanwhile, both N2 and CO2 will produce interfering ions and affect the accuracy of CO isotope analysis. In this study, a device of automatic CO gas separation, purification, and injection was developed and combined with IRMS for determination of isotope composition of CO. The impurities, CO2 and water molecules in the mixed sample gas were discharged by Nafion tube and a liquid nitrogen cold trap. After nitrogen and CO were separated by Molesive5A chromatographic column, nitrogen was eliminated by valve switching technique, and therefore only the purified CO entered the IRMS for analyzing. By calling the reserved interface of IRMS, the automatic lifting of the cold trap and switching of the 8-pass valve and 4-pass valve was realized. The CO gas concentration and the total peak area of ions at m/z 28, 29 and 30 show a good linear relationship with the correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.999 when the CO gas concentration ranges from 300 to 20 000 μL/L. The standard deviations of δ13C and δ18O are within 0.4‰ when the CO concentration is between 1 000 and 20 000 μL/L. In the repeating analysis of a long term (about 6 months), the results of δ13C and δ18O of 4 000 μL/L CO standards are stable and the standard deviations are 0.26‰ and 0.47‰ (n=20), respectively. The standard deviations of δ13C and δ18O of the CO in natural samples from Coal Bed Methane are less than 0.5‰. Based on the above test results, the conclusions can be obtained that the accuracy and stability of the automatic injection equipment coupled to IRMS meet the requirements for the determination of carbon and oxygen isotopes in CO. However, when CO gas concentration is lower than 1000 μL/L, the carbon and oxygen isotope analysis are greatly biased by IRMS. Further protocol is needed to improve the accuracy and precision of isotopic analysis for low-concentration samples.

     

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