Patent ID: 6977506

Claim:
A method of analyzing a concentration of a target substance contained in a gas, comprising the steps of: (a) feeding said gas to a reactor to decompose said target substance and to produce a product gas containing a decomposition product; (b) discharging said decomposition product gas from said reactor; (c) providing a quartz oscillator having opposing surfaces each provided with an electrode, at least one of said electrodes being reactable with said decomposition product; (d) contacting said discharged decomposition product gas from step (b) with said reactable electrode of said quartz oscillator so that said decomposition product is reacted with said reactable electrode; and (e) measuring a variation in frequency of said quartz oscillator in step (d); and wherein said target substance is an oxidizable substance selected from the group consisting of an aromatic compound, an aliphatic hydrocarbon, acetylene and an inorganic gas, wherein step (a) comprises oxidizing said oxidizable substance with iodine pentoxide and an oxidizing agent selected from the group consisting of sulfuric acid and pyrosulfuric acid to produce iodine as said decomposition product, and wherein said reactable electrode is made of silver.