Homeland Security

Outstanding detection limits

Especially explosives are known to have very low vapour pressures and are therefore hard to detect in the gas phase. With IONICON's ultra low detection limits our instruments are predestined for investigating these substances.

Unambiguous identification

Even the best detector is worthless if it produces either too many "false positives" or too many "false negatives". With IONICON's PTR-TOFMS series it is possible to separate isobaric compounds and therefore to clearly distinguish between dangerous illicit substances and harmless background compounds (see figure at the right side of this page).

Measure the "real thing"

Unlike other technologies PTR-MS does not identify illicit substances via by-products (e.g. fragments) that could also originate from harmless sources like e.g. fuel, perfume, etc. We are able to directly detect the protonated parent molecules, which makes false alarms very unlikely.

Simple handling

With PTR-MS it is not necessary to swipe surfaces or to fill sample bags or tubes prior to the measurement. The air in contact with suspicious items can be analyzed directly and without any preparation. With our novel inlet booster system (featuring a factor of 1000 in sensitivity enhancement) designed especially for explosives detection (work in progress) it is even possible to detect extremely small traces of explosives in large amounts of air in a minute-timescale.