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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2018

Gas chromatography High Resolution Mass Spectrometry to reveal the chemical composition of a Trojan asteroid with the OKEANOS space mission

Résumé

Characterization of the organic materials likely present at the surface of Jupiter Trojans is one among the main objectives of the JAXA OKEANOS mission. With this aim, a gas chromatograph (GC) coupled to a high-resolution mass spectrometer (HRMS) has been proposed to be part of the scientific payload capable to analyze the composition of material extracted from the surface of Trojans by the spacecraft sampler. The combination of the separation achieved with GC, with the high-resolution spectral analysis achieved with the Multi-turn Time-of-Flight mass spectrometer (MULTUM) results in a powerful tool for identifying the molecules analyzed in a space instrumentation concepts. To demonstrate the feasibility of this coupling, and to have a first estimation of the performances of such an instrument, a test campaign was led in summer 2018 at the Osaka University. It coupled an engineering model of space GCs developed for the NASA/MSL and ESA/Exomars missions, with the MULTUM. A trap based on Tenax® absorbent is used to concentrate the organic material and quickly inject them into one of the two different columns which are part of the GC. These two columns allow the analysis of a wide range of volatile and of chiral compounds. MULTUM is compact-size time-of-flight mass spectrometer with a flight length of 662.7 mm/cycle within 190 mm x 160 mm x 50 mm ion optics electrodes. Typical mass resolution of MULTUM in the same configuration as used for this experiment is m/dm = 30000 [1,2]. The analytes were ionized by electron-ionization method with 70 eV ionization energy. For this first attempt of coupling the two instruments, the analytes used for the test were limited to gaseous and volatile compounds in the laboratory conditions. Despite this limiting constraint, the results obtained clearly show that: i) the GC-HRMS coupling is working and both instruments can be interfaced; ii) Individual components from two different mixtures (N2, CO2, butane and benzene, toluene, xylenes and indene) have been easily separated, detected and identified, including the positional isomers from xylene. iii) the first limit of detection obtained with benzene and toluene is promising in the perspective of detecting organics at the surface of Trojans. The results of this coupling test will be presented.
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insu-04425235 , version 1 (29-01-2024)

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A. Buch, N. Grand, Cyril Szopa, J. Aoki, Y. Kawai, et al.. Gas chromatography High Resolution Mass Spectrometry to reveal the chemical composition of a Trojan asteroid with the OKEANOS space mission. American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2018, Dec 2018, Washington, United States. pp.abstract #P54D-13. ⟨insu-04425235⟩
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