Cantilever enhanced photoacoustic spectrometry: Quantitative analysis of the trace H2S produced by SF6 decomposition

As one of the key characteristic components that result from sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) decomposition in SF6 gas-insulated equipment, hydrogen sulfide (H2S) can reflect the severity of the internal insulation faults and indicate whether or not such faults involve solid insulation material effectively. The decomposition of SF6 and its reaction with other impurities to form H2S are simulated in this study via Materials Studio. The simulation verifies that H2S is generated only when serious faults occur in the equipment; thus, the online monitoring of the trace H2S is highly necessary. To achieve a high detection accuracy and avoid cross interference, the spectral line R (8) of the H2S ν1 + ν2 + ν3 co-frequency absorption band is taken as the absorption line for the gas detection by online simulation based on the HITRAN on the Web. In addition, this study develops a cantilever-enhanced photoacoustic spectrometry trace gas detection platform and conducts experimental research on the quantitative detection of trace H2S/SF6 and H2S/N2. Experimental results show that the detection sensitivity of the detection platform to trace H2S under the background gas N2 and SF6 is 0.84 and 1.75 μL/L, respectively, and a strong linear relationship exists between the trace H2S concentration and its corresponding PA signal. Moreover, based on both the theoretical simulation and experiment, the influence of temperature and pressure on the detection platform is discussed and analyzed. The results indicate that the change in the PA signal amplitude decreases with an increase in the pressure or temperature of the PA cell, and the detection platform is more sensitive to pressure.