Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Mochalski, Paweł
• Wiesenhofer, Helmut
• Allers, Maria
• Zimmermann, Stefan
• Güntner, Andreas T.
• Pineau, Nicolay J.
• Lederer, Wolfgang
• Agapiou, Agapios
• Mayhew, Christopher A.
• Ruzsanyi, Veronika

Titel

Monitoring of selected skin- and breath-borne volatile organic compounds emitted from the human body using gas chromatography ion mobility spectrometry (GC-IMS)

Ist Teil von

• Journal of chromatography. B, Analytical technologies in the biomedical and life sciences, 2018-02, Vol.1076, p.29-34

Ort / Verlag

Netherlands: Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• 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. •Monitoring of volatiles emitted by humans by GC-IMS•The use of volatiles as potential markers of hidden humans•Instrumental detection of smuggled people