The performance of a home-built tunable diode laser (TDL) spectrometer has been optimized regarding multi-line detection of carbon dioxide in natural gases. In the regime of the (30<SUP>0</SUP>1)<SUB>III</SUB> ← (000) band of <SUP>12</SUP>CO<SUB>2</SUB> around 1.6 μm, the dominating isotope species <SUP>12</SUP>CO<SUB>2</SUB>, <SUP>13</SUP>CO<SUB>2</SUB>, and <SUP>12</SUP>C<SUP>18</SUP>O<SUP>16</SUP>O were detected simultaneously. In contrast to most established techniques, selective measurements are performed without any sample preparation. This is possible since the CO<SUB>2</SUB> detection is free of interference from water, ubiquitous in natural gases. Detection limits in the range of a few ppmv were obtained for each species utilizing wavelength modulation (WM) spectroscopy with balanced detection in a long-path absorption cell set-up. Linear calibration plots cover a dynamic range of four orders of magnitude, allowing for quantitative CO<SUB>2</SUB> detection in various samples, like soil and breath gas. High isotopic resolution enables the excellent selectivity, sensitivity, and stability of the chosen analytical concept. The obtained isotopic resolution of typically ± 1.0 ‰ and ± 1.5 ‰ (for 3 vol. % and 0.7 vol. % of CO<SUB>2</SUB>, respectively) offers a promising analytical tool for isotope-ratio determination of carbon dioxide in soil gas. Preliminary experiments on soil respiration for the first time combine the on-line quantification of the overall carbon dioxide content with an optode sensor and isotopic determination (TDL system) of natural gas species.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:Potsdam/oai:kobv.de-opus-ubp:1014 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Hörner, Gerald, Lau, Steffen, Löhmannsröben, Hans-Gerd |
| Publisher | Universität Potsdam, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät. Institut für Chemie |
| Source Sets | Potsdam University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Postprint |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Proc. SPIE Vol. 5544 (2004), pp. 47 - 54 |
| Rights | http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/doku/urheberrecht.php |
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