Abstract
Measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratios in Houston, Texas, during the period from May 16, 2013 to May 28, 2013 were performed using a sensitive, selective, compact, and portable quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS)-based CO sensor employing a high-power continuous wave (CW) distributed feedback quantum cascade laser (DFB-QCL). The minimum detectable CO concentration was 3 ppbv for the strong, interference-free R(6) absorption line at 2,169.2 cm(-1) and a 5 s data acquisition time. The average CO concentration during the measurement period was 299.1 +/- A 81.4 ppb with observed minimum and maximum values of 210.5 and 4,307.9 ppb, respectively. A commercially available electrochemical sensor was employed in-line for simultaneous measurements to confirm the response of the CW DFB-QCL-based QEPAS sensor to variations of the CO mixing ratios. Moderate agreement (R (2) = 0.7) was found between both sets of CO measurements.