Determination of impurities in oxygen by mass spectrometry

Abstract

The difficulties in analysing high-purity gaseous oxygen are overcome by using a copper-based catalyst to remove the oxygen completely, allowing impurities to be readily determined by mass spectrometry. The sensitivity is estimated to be 1 p.p.m. and the uncertainty is at most 5 per cent, of the concentration. The equipment is described, together with the results of experiments confirming the accuracy, linearity and reproducibility for the particular impurities nitrogen, argon and krypton.