{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,23]],"date-time":"2026-07-23T00:44:52Z","timestamp":1784767492164,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,26]],"date-time":"2021-07-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1627257600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Sensitive real-time detection of vapors produced by toxic industrial chemicals (TICs) always represents a stringent priority. Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is definitely a TIC, being widely used in various industries and as an insecticide; it is a reactive, very flammable, and highly toxic compound that affects the central nervous system, cardiovascular system, eyes, nose, throat, and also has systemic effects. Moreover, HCN is considered a blood chemical warfare agent. This study was focused toward quick detection and quantification of HCN in air using time-of-flight ion mobility spectrometry (ToF IMS). Results obtained clearly indicate that IMS can rapidly detect HCN at sub-ppmv levels in air. Ion mobility spectrometric response was obtained in the negative ion mode and presented one single distinct product ion, at reduced ion mobility K0 of 2.38 cm2 V\u22121 s\u22121. Our study demonstrated that by using a miniaturized commercial IMS system with nonradioactive ionization source model LCD-3.2E (Smiths Detection Ltd., London, UK), one can easily measure HCN at concentrations of 0.1 ppmv (0.11 mg m\u22123) in negative ion mode, which is far below the OSHA PEL-TWA value of 10 ppmv. Measurement range was from 0.1 to 10 ppmv and the estimated limit of detection LoD was ca. 20 ppbv (0.02 mg m\u22123).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21155045","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,26]],"date-time":"2021-07-26T04:19:30Z","timestamp":1627273170000},"page":"5045","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":17,"title":["Fast Sensing of Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) Vapors Using a Hand-Held Ion Mobility Spectrometer with Nonradioactive Ionization Source"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0836-1049","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Victor","family":"Bocos-Bintintan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babes-Bolyai University, RO-400294 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"},{"name":"Transcend SRL, RO-400568 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ileana Andreea","family":"Ratiu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"\u201cRaluca Ripan\u201d Institute for Research in Chemistry, Babes-Bolyai University, RO-400294 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,7,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Eiceman, G., and Karpas, Z. 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