TY - JOUR
T1 - Monitoring of selected skin- and breath-borne volatile organic compounds emitted from the human body using gas chromatography ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS)
AU - Mochalski, Paweł
AU - Wiesenhofer, Helmut
AU - Allers, Maria
AU - Zimmermann, Stefan
AU - Güntner, Andreas T.
AU - Pineau, Nicolay J.
AU - Lederer, Wolfgang
AU - Agapiou, Agapios
AU - Mayhew, Christopher A.
AU - Ruzsanyi, Veronika
PY - 2018/2/15
Y1 - 2018/2/15
N2 - Human smuggling and associated cross-border crimes have evolved as a major challenge for the European Union in recent years. Of particular concern is the increasing trend of smuggling migrants hidden inside shipping containers or trucks. Therefore, there is a growing demand for portable security devices for the non-intrusive and rapid monitoring of containers to detect people hiding inside. In this context, chemical analysis of volatiles organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from the human body is proposed as a locating tool. In the present study, an in-house made ion mobility spectrometer coupled with gas chromatography (GC-IMS) was used to monitor the volatile moieties released from the human body under conditions that mimic entrapment. A total of 17 omnipresent volatile compounds were identified and quantified from 35 ion mobility peaks corresponding to human presence. These are 7 aldehydes (acrolein, 2-methylpropanal, 3-methylbutanal, 2-ethacrolein, n-hexanal, n-heptanal, benzaldehyde), 3 ketones (acetone, 2-pentanone, 4-methyl-2-pentanone), 5 esters (ethyl formate, ethyl propionate, vinyl butyrate, butyl acetate, ethyl isovalerate), one alcohol (2-methyl-1-propanol) and one organic acid (acetic acid). The limits of detection (0.05–7.2 ppb) and relative standard deviations (0.6–11%) should be sufficient for detecting these markers of human presence in field conditions. This study shows that GC-IMS can be used as a portable field detector of hidden or entrapped people.
AB - Human smuggling and associated cross-border crimes have evolved as a major challenge for the European Union in recent years. Of particular concern is the increasing trend of smuggling migrants hidden inside shipping containers or trucks. Therefore, there is a growing demand for portable security devices for the non-intrusive and rapid monitoring of containers to detect people hiding inside. In this context, chemical analysis of volatiles organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from the human body is proposed as a locating tool. In the present study, an in-house made ion mobility spectrometer coupled with gas chromatography (GC-IMS) was used to monitor the volatile moieties released from the human body under conditions that mimic entrapment. A total of 17 omnipresent volatile compounds were identified and quantified from 35 ion mobility peaks corresponding to human presence. These are 7 aldehydes (acrolein, 2-methylpropanal, 3-methylbutanal, 2-ethacrolein, n-hexanal, n-heptanal, benzaldehyde), 3 ketones (acetone, 2-pentanone, 4-methyl-2-pentanone), 5 esters (ethyl formate, ethyl propionate, vinyl butyrate, butyl acetate, ethyl isovalerate), one alcohol (2-methyl-1-propanol) and one organic acid (acetic acid). The limits of detection (0.05–7.2 ppb) and relative standard deviations (0.6–11%) should be sufficient for detecting these markers of human presence in field conditions. This study shows that GC-IMS can be used as a portable field detector of hidden or entrapped people.
KW - volatile organic compounds
KW - ion mobility spectrometry
KW - GC-IMS
KW - entrapped victims
KW - human smuggling
KW - human occupancy detection
U2 - 10.1016/j.jchromb.2018.01.013
DO - 10.1016/j.jchromb.2018.01.013
M3 - Article
SN - 1570-0232
VL - 1076
SP - 29
EP - 34
JO - Journal of Chromatography. B, Analytical Technologies in the Biomedical and Life Sciences
JF - Journal of Chromatography. B, Analytical Technologies in the Biomedical and Life Sciences
ER -