Quartz tube orifice leaks for local, fast-response gas sampling to mass spectrometers

Simple and versatile quartz tube orifice leaks, suitable for sampling of gas mixtures to mass spectrometers, have been made by heating the tip of a quartz tube in a hydrogen-oxygen flame. With these leaks the requirement of expensive and clumsy differential pumping stages is removed. The quartz probes have been used in gas sampling from catalytic reaction cells at 1 atm to a mass spectrometer. The sampling position can be located within 0.1 mm from the catalyst. Continuous recording of the local gas composition is then achieved with a response time of about 0.05 s, and with a minimum perturbation of the gas flow. The probes have been used in ambient air and at temperatures around 1000 K for extended periods of time without deterioration or plugging. The high stability at elevated temperatures and chemical resistance seem to make these probes useful for various applications, e.g., in sampling from combustion flames. The gas flow through the leak is determined by a very short and narrow constriction at the tube tip. In a leak with a throughput of 1x10(-4) Torr l/s at 1 atm inlet pressure, the constriction has a diameter of 5-7x10(-4) cm and a length of about 0.015. cm.