Low-cost device

Quadmpole ion traps were originally coupled to continuous ion sources but also work well with pulsed ion sources. The cylindrical QIT is a compact device with a diameter and length of 5 cm and the linear QIT is the size of a quadmpole mass filter, that is, 20 cm long. As stand-alone instruments they are nowadays of benchtop size and, together with quadmpole mass filters, are considered to be standard low-cost devices, which are commonly coupled to LC systems. 

A 7] The fiber-coupled spectrometer is actually designed for applications with hand-held devices. A combination of micro injection molding and an electroforming process allows the production of a high-performance but low-cost device. The optical grating is, for example, replicated in plastic to reduce costs. 

Catalytic processes are an essential operation of large-scale processes in the chemical industry. Appropriate micro structured reactors offer an increase in efficiency compared with conventional reactors if a method can be found to integrate low-cost devices in industrial practise. Automated procedures will enable professional manufacturing of reactors with an acceptable cost/performance ratio. 

The methods range from simple, inexpensive absorption spectroscopy to sophisticated tunable-laser-excited fluorescence and ionization spectroscopies. AAS has been used routinely for uranium and thorium determinations (see for example Pollard et al., 1986). The technique is based on the measurement of absorption of light by the sample. The incident light is normally the emission spectrum of the element of interest, generated in a hollow-cathode lamp. For isotopes with a shorter half life than and Th, this requires construction of a hollow-cathode lamp with significant quantities of radioactive material. Measurement of technetium has been demonstrated in this way by Pollard et al. (1986). Lawrenz and Niemax (1989) have demonstrated that tunable lasers can be used to replace hollow-cathode lamps. This avoids the safety problems involved in the construction and use of active hollow-cathode lamps. Tunable semiconductor lasers were used as these are low-cost devices. They do not, however, provide complete coverage of the spectral range useful for AAS and the method has, so far, only been demonstrated for a few elements, none of which were radionuclides. 

Generic Products. Low-cost devices are marketed but can perform much worse with respect to intrapulmonary deposition than more expensive devices [72]. Common nebulizers are ubiquitous, as are compressors to operate them. Aerosol medications are marketed with recommendations for use with specific nebulizers and compressors for optimal results [73]. Nebulizers are commonly used for many weeks to months, even those devices described as disposable. When disposable devices are washed using saline, they maintain size distribution and output for at least 100 uses but, when not so cleaned, begin to deteriorate after 40 uses [74]. 

Fundamental scientific breakthroughs are not necessary for the development of any of this hardware. However, much high quality engineering and innovative development will be required to produce elegant, high reliability, low cost devices. 

Fig. 12 The aapptech ACTEVAP is a low-cost device for parallel evaporation.

The general aim of this chapter is to contribute to the establishment of a fast and low-cost device for human breath analysis in addition to inveshgahons of blood and urine as a non-invasive standard method in hospitals and point-of-care centers for different medical apphcahons. On the basis of miniaturized ion mobihty spectrometry (IMS), the fuU procedure, including sampling, pre-separahon and idenhficahon of metabolites in human exhaled air, will be developed and implemented with re-... 

An increase in optical thickness of the thin film, caused by e.g. ligand adsorption, will shift the interference spectrum to a higher wavelength and widen the distance between the minima and maxima in the inteference spectra as illustrated in Fig. 14.45b. This is the principle behind reflectometric interference spectroscopy, or Rifs [315]. Due to the high sensitivivity of the detection (ppm levels of phase shifts can be measured [316]), the RIfS device has been successfully used for the study of various biological interactions at surfaces, such as mouse anti-atrazine/ atrazine [317] and DNA-ligand interactions [318]. The principle of RIfS also allows the construction of low-cost devices. 

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