Acoustic nickel carbonyl assay – proof of principle

Abstract

In the Mond process, impure nickel is converted to nickel carbonyl by exposure to carbon monoxide at about 70 °C which is, in turn, decomposed back to nickel at about 200 °C. The decomposition reaction can be made to happen on the surface of a sensor where the rate of nickel deposition is used to calculate the concentration of nickel carbonyl in the gas sample. A novel heated sensor based on an SC cut quartz thickness shear mode acoustic resonator operating at 18 MHz with one electrode acting as a thin film heating element has been demonstrated to be capable of quantitatively detecting nickel carbonyl at 6 parts per billion in a timely manner.