An effective method for detecting nitrous oxide using alkaline washing and GC-MS.

Nitrous oxide (NO) is generally detected by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) which has become a popular method in current research and applications. However, NO and CO have the same molecular mass and comparable physical characteristics, posing significant challenges to complete separation and accurate detection of NO. For this purpose, a simple and effective method for detecting nitrous oxide using alkaline washing and GC-MS was proposed. The method first uses an alkaline washing technique to remove CO from the gas sample, followed by the detection of NO using GC-MS. To systematically evaluate the effectiveness of this method in removing CO and detecting NO, a series of experiments were conducted. The experimental results showed that the interference of CO was successfully eliminated, achieving the limit of detection (LOD) for NO of 0.01 μL mL, with the relative standard deviation (RSD) of less than 10%. The method was simple and effective, and does not require specific instruments or chromatographic columns to detect NO from the sample even in the presence of CO, making it highly promising for accurate monitoring of nitrous oxide.