Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net 1867-8610 3 2 2010 10.5194/amtd-3-1133-2010 http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/3/1133/2010/ http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/3/1133/2010/amtd-3-1133-2010.html http://www.atmos-meas-tech-discuss.net/3/1133/2010/amtd-3-1133-2010.pdf 1133 1162 2010-03-24 Chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CIMS) for ambient measurements of ammonia D. R. Benson M. Al-Refai S.-H. Lee slee19@kent.edu Kent State University, Department of Chemistry, Kent, Ohio, USA Kent State University, Department of Computer Sciences, Kent, Ohio, USA This study describes a chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CIMS) for fast response, in-situ measurements for gas phase ammonia. Protonated ethanol ions were used as the ion-molecule reaction reagent. The CIMS sensitivity was estimated to be between 4–25 Hz/pptv with 30% uncertainty. The instrument background was below 1 ppbv and at lowest was 300 pptv. 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