Ion mobility spectrometers
(IMS) are widely used in the security
industry as well as in analytical measurements. Nevertheless, the IMS input is dynamic in nature because
the sampling input can vary over time. Similar to most instruments,
IMS is unable to respond immediately to variations in the input sample.
Therefore, the measurements are made under transient conditions, which
may affect the results. This work investigates the dynamic response
of an IMS to different inputs, including steps, pulsed, exponential,
and Gaussian functions. A theoretical model was developed based on
two phenomena: the accumulation or dilution of a sample in the ionization
region and the adsorption or desorption inside the injection port.
Both processes have a charging/discharging nature. Thus, a mathematical
expression was derived that takes into account two RC circuits in
series. Fitting the output signal of the experimental data to the
expression obtained from the model gave reasonable time constants
of 2–4 s and 15–20 s for the dilution and the desorption
processes, respectively. The model performance was evaluated by comparing
the output with the experimental results, which were in excellent
correlation. IMS was also found to behave in a manner similar to a
second-order instrument, in which the output is related to the input
via a second-order differential equation. These results are applicable
to GC-IMS and IMS-based detectors.