Ludlum Measurements, Inc.

2b Technologies, Inc.

University Patents, Inc.

University of Colorado

Indevr, Inc.

Novanox, LLC

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences Univers. of

John William Birks

Craig Joseph Williford

Peter Christian Andersen

Mark J Bollinger

Andrew Allen Turnipseed

Kathy Lou Rowlen

Christopher Bowman

Jean-Luc Fraikin

Ryan Hansen

Hadley Sikes

Julie N Getty

Curtis L Shellum

Robert Kuchta

Richard H Getty

Bova Xiong

Jill K Robinson

Jill K Gregory

Christopher M Ford

Mitchell S Gandelman

An enclosure or housing for an air monitoring instrument package for mounting on the roof or other surface on the outside of vehicles such as cars, trucks, buses, trams, trains and ships. By measuring air pollutants from moving vehicles, it is possible to explore the distribution of air pollutants throughout a city or rural area for the identification of sources of different pollutants, estimating human exposures to air pollutants, and mapping air pollutants with high resolution. The disclosed device provides continuous sampling of outside air while simultaneously protecting the delicate instruments from weather elements such as high wind, rain, snow, sleet and hail. The design also allows a nearly constant flow rate of sampled air independent of vehicle velocity. An optional impaction region further reduces transmission of mist and large particles to the chamber containing the measurement package.

Enclosure for mobile monitoring of the composition and properties of ambient air

The present invention makes use of a modular Folded Tubular Photometer to measure the concentrations of gas-phase species and/or particles, including especially air pollutants such as ozone (O), nitrogen dioxide (NO), sulfur dioxide (SO) and black carbon particulate matter, by means of absorbance of ultraviolet (UV), visible or infrared (IR) light. The optical bench makes use of modular components (tubes and mirror assemblies) that allow construction of path lengths of up to 2 meters or more while maintaining low detection cell volumes. The long path lengths, low cell volumes, and the innovation of pressure equalization during the absorbance measurements enable sensitive detection of ambient air pollutants down to low part-per-billion levels or less for gas species, and extinctions down to 1 Mmor less for particulate matter, corresponding to &#x2dc;0.13 &#x3bc;g/mor less for black carbon particulates.

Method for measuring air pollutants using a folded tubular photometer

The present invention provides a means of greatly reducing interferences from mercury vapor, UV-absorbing compounds and water vapor in the measurement of ozone by UV absorbance. A heated graphite scrubber destroys greater than 99% of ozone passing through it while reducing biases from typical atmospheric UV-absorbing interferents by large factors compared to conventional ozone scrubbers. Substitution of a heated graphite scrubber in place of traditional ozone scrubbers such as hopcalite, metal oxides and heated silver scrubbers, results in a more accurate measurement of ozone by reducing the responses to UV-absorbing interferences and water vapor. The heated graphite scrubber also may be used in combination with other ozone sensors, such as electrochemical and HMOS sensors, to provide a reference measurement with ozone selectively removed and thus greatly reduce contributions from interfering species in those measurement devices as well.

Heated graphite scrubber to reduce interferences in ozone monitors

The present invention provides a means of producing nitric oxide (NO) by photolysis of nitrous oxide (NO) at ultraviolet wavelengths. One application is the production of a known concentration of NO in a diluent gas for calibration of analytical instruments that measure nitric oxide in gases such as exhaled breath, ambient air and automobile exhaust. A potentially important medical application is the production of NO for inhalation therapy, an advantage being that very little toxic NOgas is produced. The method is useful for producing NO for industrial applications as well. Advantages of this method of NO production include the use of a single, inexpensive, readily available reagent gas of very low toxicity. Furthermore, the concentration of NO produced can be easily controlled by varying the ultraviolet (UV) lamp intensity and relative gas flow rates. The method may also be applied to the production of controlled concentrations of other gases as well such as CO and Fby using reagent gases other than NO.

Method to produce a calibration, reagent or therapeutic gas by exposing a precursor gas to ultraviolet light

The present invention provides a means of measuring the concentration of ozone dissolved in water or another solvent. Small, discrete samples are sparged with air or another unreactive gas for a short period of time to measure a profile of ozone vs time in the sparge gas. The total amount of ozone in the original sample is obtained by integrating under the ozone vs time profile. A correction may be made for ozone remaining in the sample after a finite sparge time by integrating under the profile tail using a decay constant obtained from the measured ozone vs time profile. The method differs from previous methods based on sparging of the sample in that a Henry's Law equilibrium or constant ratio of ozone present in the gas and liquid phases is not assumed and the flow rates of sample and sparge gas are not continuous.

Aqueous ozone monitor utilizing gas stripping

A system for the indirect detection of agglutination in an agglutination assay using optical density measurement and a reaction vessel. Light emitted by light source is transmitted through reaction vessel containing components of an agglutination reaction that is detected by light detector. As particles in the reaction vessel settle in the absence of agglutination they are concentrated in a reaction vessel lower volume and increase the optical density of the light path through the reaction vessel. Light detector generates an output signal related to said optical density. Said output signal is read and interpreted by an instrument to detect a presence or absence of agglutination. Other embodiments are described and shown.

Detection of agglutination by optical density measurement

The present invention provides a means of greatly reducing or eliminating the interferences of UV-absorbing compounds, mercury, water vapor and particulates in the UV absorbance measurement of ozone by replacing the internal solid-phase ozone scrubber with a gas-phase scrubber. Reagent gases well suited as a gas-phase scrubber of ozone include nitric oxide and bromine atoms. Nitric oxide may be supplied by a gas cylinder or by photolysis of either NO or NO, both in the absence of oxygen. Bromine atoms are conveniently generated by photolysis of Brsupplied by a permeation tube. Bromine atoms have the advantage of having a faster reaction with ozone than NO and of being catalytic in their reaction. Nitric oxide has the advantage of being generally less reactive with other components of air.

Ozone monitor with gas-phase ozone scrubber

The invention provides methods to detect molecular recognition events. The invention also provides methods to detect the presence of or identify a target species based on its interaction with one or more probe species. The methods of the invention are based on amplification of the signal due to each molecular recognition event. The amplification is achieved through photopolymerization, with the polymer formed being associated with the molecular recognition event. In an embodiment, a fluorescent polymer, a magnetic polymer, a radioactive polymer or an electrically conducting polymer can form the basis of detection and amplification. In another embodiment, a polymer gel swollen with a fluorescent solution, a magnetic solution, a radioactive solution or an electrically conducting solution can form the basis of detection and amplification. In another embodiment, sufficient polymer forms to be detectable by visual inspection.

Use of photopolymerization for amplification and detection of a molecular recognition event

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for determining the concentration of nitric oxide (NO) in a gas mixture such as air. The gas sample containing NO is mixed with a gas containing ozone (O), and the change in the ozone concentration is measured after a sufficient time is allowed for the reaction between NO and Oto take place and destroy a measurable quantity of O. In the disclosed embodiment, the concentration of ozone is measured using the technique of UV absorption. In this case, the invention has the advantage over other instruments for measuring NO of having absolute calibration based on the known extinction coefficient for ozone at ultraviolet wavelengths. The invention discloses both static and dynamic flow systems, and the NO concentration measurements may be made over a wide pressure range.

Method and apparatus to detect a gas by measuring ozone depletion

The concentration of nitric oxide in a gas is determined by oxidizing NO to NO and then measuring the concentration of NO in the gas, which is proportional to the concentration of NO. Preferably, gaseous NO molecules diffuse through a plurality of capillary membrane fibers and undergo a chemiluminescent reaction with a reagent flowing within; the light from the reaction is measured to determine NO concentration. In another aspect of a preferred embodiment, gas is passed through a scrubber before the concentration of NO is measured, in order to substantially remove carbon dioxide and ambient NO from the gas without substantially affecting the concentration of nitric oxide therein.

Nitric oxide gas detector

A detector for detecting and measuring nitric oxide. Gas-permeable capillary membrane fibers transport a reagent solution through a plenum containing gases to be measured. Nitric oxide molecules penetrate the walls of the fibers and undergo a chemiluminescent reaction within. The fibers and the plenum are translucent, allowing photons emitted by the chemiluminescent reaction to escape and be detected by a photodetector. The reagent is buffered at an alkaline pH and mixed with the enzyme carbonic anhydrase to minimize the measurement errors caused by the presence of carbon dioxide in the gas to be measured.

Nitric oxide detector

An organosulfur compound is detected and/or quantified, optionally in admixture with one or more other compounds, by reacting the organosulfur compound with gaseous fluorine at sub-atmospheric pressure and observing the chemiluminescence which develops. Detections at ultra-trace levels are achieved. A special detector cell is provided in which the reaction is performed.

Process for detection of organosulfur compounds and apparatus therefor

A post-column photochemical reaction method to improve the detection limits of compounds which absorb radiation in the range of 240 nm to 800 nm has been developed for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Specifically, the limit of detection of HPLC has been reduced to a range of from about 0.5 pg to about 10 pg for a large class of organic compounds which promotes the formation of 'singlet oxygen'. These compounds transfer excitation energy to ground state oxygen, forming the excited singlet species, O.sub.2 (.sup.1 .DELTA.g). Singlet oxygens in turn react with a substituted furan such as 2,5-dimethylfuran (DMF) or 2,5-diphenylfuran (DPF). UV absorption or fluorescence is used to detect either the loss of the substituted furan or the appearance of the oxidation product of the substituted furan. The reaction is photocatalytic in nature and results in a large chemical amplication of the signal. Detection limits are improved by one to two orders of magnitude for a wide variety of UV-absorbing compounds.

Method of improving the detection limits of UV-VIS absorbing compounds

A process for detecting the presence of trace amounts of non-fluorescent soluble compounds each having at least one labile hydrogen atom in a carrier solution by adding a non-fluorescent quinone which is reducible to a fluorescent hydroquinone, and irradiating the resulting solution in the absence of oxygen with light of sufficient energy to cause the quinone to be reduced to a hydroquinone. The invention further provides a novel photochemical reactor--recording fluorometer combination and carrier liquid--quinone solution for performing the analysis.

Growing community of inventors

Longmont, CO, United States of America

John William Birks