Dissertation
Development of a breathalyzer-ion mobility spectrometer for the detection of cannabis from human breath
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2016
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/118234
Abstract
Twenty-three states have legalized cannabis for medicinal uses and four states plus the District of Columbia legalized cannabis for recreational use. It is expected cannabis laws will continue to change, which increases the number of impaired drivers on the road. Currently, the only line of defense against drugged drivers is a drug recognition expert, but as of 2013, there were only 230 employed in Washington State to regulate the 5 million licensed drivers. Unlike the use of alcohol breathalyzers by law enforcement officers for the rapid identification of alcohol-impaired drivers, there are no roadside chemical tests for screening and identifying drugged drivers. The development of a roadside test for the presence of drugs will aid law enforcement officers in making rapid and informed decisions about impaired drivers.
This thesis describes the instrumental development of a roadside breathalyzer test for ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) based on the collection of skin particles from breath, the rapid thermal desorption of THC adsorbed onto these particles, and the selective detection of THC by ion mobility spectrometry. Chapter 2 involves a comprehensive study of a variety of drugs to identify their responses with differential mobility spectrometer (DMS). Chapter 3 is the proof of concept for the detection of THC from breath by thermal desorption DT-IMS and DMS and investigates potential interferences with THC detection in breath. Chapter 4 describes the development a field prototype that includes an inductively coupled thermal desorption method coupled with improved DMS or a gas chromatography couple DMS for the detection of THC from breath. The conclusions of this work are: that particle detection-thermal desorption-DMS is sensitive enough to detect THC in breath; that interferences do not produce many false positive responses; that the addition of a small gas chromatographic column in front of the DMS enhances the selectivity of response; and that inductively conductive heating provides a low energy method for desorbing THC from skin particles. Overall the ion mobility approach to the breath detection of THC is 80% to 90 % efficient. While instrumental development has been promising, considerable advancement is required before the DMS breathalyzer can be implemented as a field instrument.
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Details
- Title
- Development of a breathalyzer-ion mobility spectrometer for the detection of cannabis from human breath
- Creators
- Jessica Ann Tufariello
- Contributors
- Herbert H Hill (Advisor)Nathalie Wall (Committee Member)William Siems (Committee Member)Peter Reilly (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Chemistry, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 275
- Identifiers
- 99900581833801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation