Determination of trace organic chlorides in hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles by gas chromatography coupled with ion mobility spectrometry

Abstract

A method for the determination of organic chlorides in hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles by gas chromatography coupled with ion mobility spectrometry was established. Organic chlorides were separated by a non‐polar gas chromatography column and detected in the negative ion mode of the ion mobility spectrometer. The effect of operating parameters of ion mobility spectrometer including drift gas flow rate and drift tube temperature on sensitivity and resolution were evaluated. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits of seven organic chlorides were from 0.65 to 6.73 nmol/mol, which met the requirement of detection for the specification limit of 50 nmol/mol of total halogen impurities in hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles. Compared with gas chromatography‐mass spectrometry, and gas chromatography coupled with electron capture detector under the same gas chromatography conditions, gas chromatography coupled with ion mobility spectrometry method demonstrated higher sensitivity for detection of organic chlorides under study. Based on the portability of the device and its detection capabilities, gas chromatography coupled with ion mobility spectrometry has the potential to perform online detection of impurities in hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles.

Effects of Pt Loading onto SnO2 Ordered Porous Thin Films on Potentiometric Hydrogen Sensing Properties

“…Fast, sensitive, and recognizable detection of hydrogen is of great significance for various fields such as chemical industry, aerospace, and hydrogen-powered vehicles. [1][2][3] Gas sensors possess a range of attractive operational advantages and hold significant potential in the detection of hydrogen. [4][5][6][7][8] Various hydrogen sensors have been developed to satisfy the detection requirements, including chemiresistive sensors, [9][10][11] potentiometric sensors, 12 optical sensors, 13 and quartz resonant sensors.…”