World Record Status for Development of Multi-Component Specialty Gas Mixture

Linde Gases announced it has developed a groundbreaking 110-component calibration gas mixture, which has been granted Guinness World Record status for the greatest number of separate chemical components in a single gas mixture. The calibration standard, part of Linde’s HiQ® specialty gases range, comprises the largest number of components, including over a hundred Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), of any known calibration gas in commercial use today and represents an extraordinary level of technological achievement.

Linde formulated the custom 110-component mixture for TestAmerica who are using the standard in their laboratory for environmental analysis in Austin, Texas. The gas calibration standard will be used to detect and assess VOCs in samples of indoor and ambient air to determine its level of safety and even to identify the potential source of pollution. To produce such a sophisticated and complex mixture of gases requires not only the evaluation of possible interaction of the various components, and subsequent guarantee of mixture stability, but also the accurate manufacture of the final mixture and even the cylinder material selection.

VOCs can emanate from many sources, including consumer products, construction materials and legacy sources of environmental contamination outside and even underneath buildings, for example, fuel leakage from storage tanks. In addition, fuel storage, solvents and certain cleaning materials can have an impact on indoor air quality that may have short or long term health effects on building occupants.

With increasing regulatory requirements, more rigorous demands in measurement and new compounds of concern to evaluate, laboratories performing environmental analysis of air quality are being constantly confronted with new challenges and are under continuous pressure to expand their scope and expertise. Innovative, next generation calibration gas mixtures are essential to enable new air quality analysis technologies and meet the needs of laboratory researchers.