
Environmental
Atmospheric Research
Establishing the relationship between sources of pollution and their effects on ambient air quality is a key benefit of Syft's SIFT-MS technology. This enables air quality managers to predict the impact of emission sources and to assist in compliance and policy decisions.
Real-time volatiles analysis supports air quality modeling
SIFT-MS is supporting scientists committed to improving urban air quality, by providing the real-time VOC data necessary for building effective models. In addition to the high sensitivity of modern SIFT-MS instruments, the unique rapidly switchable reagent ion system enables a very wide range of VOCs and inorganic gases to be quantified in a single analysis.
Examples of compounds detectable using SIFT-MS are:
- Hydrocarbons
- Oxygenates, such as alcohols, aldehydes (including formaldehyde), and ketones (with real-time resolution of isomeric aldehydes and ketones)
- Nitrogen compounds, such as nitrous acid (HONO), peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN), ammonia, amines and nitrosamines
- Halogenated compounds, such as hydrogen chloride, methyl bromide, and perchloroethylene
- Sulfur compounds, such as hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and carbonyl sulfide

Toluene measurements made using three SIFT-MS reagent ions during a campaign in Beijing, China in November/December 2016. GC-FID data are shown for comparison. Courtesy of Dr Marvin Shaw, University of York, UK.
Atmospheric Research benefits

Real-time analysis enables instantaneous correlation with meteorological data

High sensitivity and wide linear range (pptV to ppmV)

Proven field deployable instruments, with mobile option

Single, selective analysis of chemically diverse compounds

24/7 operation with minimal downtime (<1% downtime for validation)
Atmospheric Research resources






Measure Ethylene OxIde In Real-Time
Syft offers a robust, field-deployable solution utilizing state-of-the-art SIFT-MS technology. Multiple, rapidly switching reagent ions provide high selectivity, allowing for targeting of specific targets such as the epoxide ring of ethylene oxide or the aldehyde group of acetaldehyde.

Real-Time, Comprehensive Air Quality Monitoring Using Direct MS
Syft Tracer: The Next Generation of Volatile Impurities Analysis for Enhanced Workflows
This app note introduces the next generation of SIFT-MS, Syft TracerTM, which launched at Pittcon 2023. It revolutionizes volatile impurities analysis workflows through unparalleled speed, performance stability, and reproducibility. Learn about how this innovation to real-time trace gas detection outpaces chromatography-based methods in the analysis of challenging analytes such as formaldehyde in a PEG excipient.
Recent developments and applications of selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT‐MS)
SIFT‐MS is now recognized as the most versatile analytical technique for the identification and quantification of trace gases down to the parts‐per‐trillion by volume, pptv, range. This statement is supported by the wide reach of its applications, from real‐time analysis, obviating sample collection of very humid exhaled breath, to its adoption in industrial scenarios for air quality monitoring. This review touches on the recent extensions to the underpinning ion chemistry kinetics library and the alternative challenge of using nitrogen carrier gas instead of helium.
SIFT-MS: Quantifying the Volatiles You Smell . . . and the Toxics You Don’t
SIFT-MS has been widely applied to quantitative analysis of a broad range of VOCs in applications from food products to workplace safety to environmental monitoring, and most recently to pharmaceutical testing. This review surveys the applications of SIFT-MS in odor analysis and in workplace, environmental and consumer protection, with a particular focus on the complementarity of this real-time mass spectrometry analyzer to sensor technology and conventional laboratory techniques—in particular, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

The Latest Innovation of Real-Time, High-Throughput Volatile Impurities Analysis by SIFT-MS
Join us for this webinar to learn about Syft Tracer, the latest advancement of real-time, trace gas analysis by SIFT-MS which launched at Pittcon 2023. Hear how the recent product innovations unlock analytical bottlenecks and enable faster decisions to be made in critical process steps.