{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,14]],"date-time":"2026-01-14T23:55:32Z","timestamp":1768434932109,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":12,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,27]],"date-time":"2022-12-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1672099200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Union\u2019s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme","award":["883116"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["883116"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This paper reports on a compact, portable, and selective chemical sensor for hazardous vapors at trace levels, which is under development and validation within the EU project H2020 \u201cRISEN\u201d. Starting from the prototype developed for a previous EU project, here, we implemented an updated two-stage purge and trap vapor pre-concentration system, a more compact MEMS- based fast gas-chromatographic separation module (Compact-GC), a new miniaturized quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) detector, and a new compact laser source. The system provides two-dimensional selectivity combining GC retention time and QEPAS spectral information and was specifically designed to be rugged, portable, suitable for on-site analysis of a crime scene, with accurate response in few minutes and in the presence of strong chemical background. The main upgrades of the sensor components and functional modules will be presented in detail, and test results with VOCs, simulants of hazardous chemical agents, and drug precursors will be reported and discussed.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s23010270","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,28]],"date-time":"2022-12-28T05:31:54Z","timestamp":1672205514000},"page":"270","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Compact GC-QEPAS for On-Site Analysis of Chemical Threats"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1117-1334","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicola","family":"Liberatore","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Consorzio CREO, 67100 L\u2019Aquila, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2529-1011","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roberto","family":"Viola","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Consorzio CREO, 67100 L\u2019Aquila, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8516-9918","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sandro","family":"Mengali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Consorzio CREO, 67100 L\u2019Aquila, Italy"}]},{"given":"Luca","family":"Masini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems, Italian National Research Council CNR-IMM, 40129 Bologna, Italy"}]},{"given":"Federico","family":"Zardi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Prometehus srl., Via P. Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy"}]},{"given":"Ivan","family":"Elmi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems, Italian National Research Council CNR-IMM, 40129 Bologna, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0431-0693","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stefano","family":"Zampolli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystems, Italian National Research Council CNR-IMM, 40129 Bologna, Italy"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(2022, January 08). Available online: https:\/\/www.risen-h2020.eu\/."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"(2022, September 05). Available online: https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/id\/700264\/eu."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zampolli, S., Mengali, S., Liberatore, N., Elmi, I., Masini, L., Sanmartin, M., and Viola, R. (2020). A MEMS-Enabled Deployable Trace Chemical Sensor Based on Fast Gas-Chromatography and Quartz Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy. Sensors, 20.","DOI":"10.3390\/s20010120"},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"(2022, November 13). Available online: https:\/\/markes.com\/content-hub\/brochures\/thermal-desorption-tubes-brochure."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127444","DOI":"10.1016\/j.snb.2019.127444","article-title":"Compact-GC platform: A flexible system integration strategy for a completely microsystems-based gas-chromatograph","volume":"305","author":"Zampolli","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sens. Actuators B Chem."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1902","DOI":"10.1364\/OL.27.001902","article-title":"Quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy","volume":"27","author":"Kosterev","year":"2002","journal-title":"Opt. Lett."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7357","DOI":"10.1364\/OE.15.007357","article-title":"QEPAS based detection of broad-band absorbing molecules using a widely tunable, cw quantum cascade laser at 8.4 \u00b5m","volume":"15","author":"Lewicki","year":"2007","journal-title":"Opt. Express"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"649","DOI":"10.1007\/s00340-010-4183-7","article-title":"QEPAS for chemical analysis of multi-component gas mixtures","volume":"101","author":"Kosterev","year":"2010","journal-title":"Appl. Phys. B"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6165","DOI":"10.3390\/s140406165","article-title":"Quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy: A review","volume":"14","author":"Patimisco","year":"2014","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ma, Y. (2018). Review of Recent Advances in QEPAS-Based Trace Gas Sensing. Appl. Sci., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/app8101822"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"329","DOI":"10.1016\/j.chroma.2015.12.037","article-title":"Conventional and enantioselective GC with microfabricated planar columns for analysis of real-world samples of plant volatile fraction","volume":"1429","author":"Cagliero","year":"2016","journal-title":"J. Chromatogr."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1838","DOI":"10.1038\/s41598-019-38509-7","article-title":"Low noise, open-source QEPAS system with instrumentation amplifier","volume":"9","author":"Winkowski","year":"2019","journal-title":"Sci. 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