The Use of Porous-Polymer Beads for Analysis of the Martian Atmosphere
Open Access
- 31 January 1968
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Chromatographic Science
- Vol. 6 (2) , 84-88
- https://doi.org/10.1093/chromsci/6.2.84
Abstract
This paper describes the development performed by The Dow Chemical Company and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of a porous-polymer bead column capable of separating the components of interest thought to be present in the atmosphere of Mars. This development is part of a project at JPL to design a combined gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) experiment for the Planetary program. The porous-polymer bead material has been shown to be ideal for the space environment because it does not deteriorate when subjected to vacuum, radiation, and temperatures up to 250°C. The porous-polymer bead proved to be an excellent GC column material separating the following possible Martian atmosphere components in 14 min on one column (temperature programmed from 25 to 150°C): hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen-argon-carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, water, nitric oxide, nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, methyl fluoride, methyl chloride, hydrogen sulfide, and sulfur dioxide.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: