Figure 1

Separation and analysis of headspace air samples of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory virus cultures by airflow through a multi-capillary column (MCC), followed by ion mobility spectroscopy (IMS). (a) Schematic depiction of the experimental setup. Ambient air was purified by a Redmon device and supplied to the MCC-IMS. Headspace air samples (10 mL) of SARS-CoV-2, hCoV-NL63 (not shown), or IAV-H1N1 cultivated in pairs in vitro in a 37 °C, 5% CO₂ incubator were collected every 12.5 min and transferred to the MCC-IMS. Samples were separated according to their retention time in the MCC and their drift time in IMS. Data were analyzed using the VOCan software generating IMS-chromatograms of the samples. The scheme was generated with Affinity Designer 1.10 (https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/). (b) Exemplary IMS-chromatogram of a 10 mL headspace air sample collected after SARS-CoV-2 infection. In total, 93 different peaks were identified manually and with an automated run of established parameters (with the software VisualNow version 3.7). The positions of the peaks are marked by black crosses (+). Individual spectra for prominent peaks are shown below the chromatogram, and total ion current lines for the peak positions are shown on the right. The chromatogram was produced with VisualNow version 3.7 (permission granted as provided to the editor) and the axis labeling and legend were added with Affinity Designer 1.10 (https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/).