Einst Technology Pte. Ltd., 1092 Lower Delta Road, Tiong Bahru Industrial Estate, #04-01, 169203, Singapore.
Anal Chem. 2013 Feb 5;85(3):1846-51. doi: 10.1021/ac3032349. Epub 2013 Jan 9.
There is a critical need for a real-time, nonperturbative probe for monitoring the adulteration of automotive gasoline. Running on adulterated fuel leads to a substantive increase in air pollution, because of increased tailpipe emissions of harmful pollutants, as well as a reduction in engine performance. Consequently, both classification of the gasoline type and quantification of the adulteration content are of great significance for quality control. Gasoline adulteration detection is currently carried out in the laboratory with gas chromatography, which is time-consuming and costly. Here, we propose the application of Raman spectroscopic measurements for on-site rapid detection of gasoline adulteration. In this proof-of-principle report, we demonstrate the effectiveness of Raman spectra, in conjunction with multivariate analysis methods, in classifying the base oil types and simultaneously detecting the adulteration content in a wide range of commercial gasoline mixtures, both in their native states and spiked with different adulterants. In particular, we show that Raman spectra acquired with an inexpensive noncooled detector provides adequate specificity to clearly discriminate between the gasoline samples and simultaneously characterize the specific adulterant content with a limit of detection below 5%. Our promising results in this study illustrate, for the first time, the capability and the potential of Raman spectroscopy, together with multivariate analysis, as a low-cost, powerful tool for on-site rapid detection of gasoline adulteration and opens substantive avenues for applications in related fields of quality control in the oil industry.
实时、非侵入式的汽车汽油掺假监测手段存在迫切需求。使用掺假燃料会导致空气污染实质性增加，因为有害污染物的排气管排放量增加，同时发动机性能降低。因此，汽油类型的分类和掺假含量的定量对于质量控制都具有重要意义。目前，实验室中采用气相色谱法进行汽油掺假检测，但这种方法既耗时又昂贵。在此，我们提出应用拉曼光谱测量法进行现场快速检测汽油掺假。在这项原理验证报告中，我们展示了拉曼光谱与多元分析方法相结合，在分类基础油类型以及同时检测广泛商业汽油混合物的掺假含量方面的有效性，无论是在其原始状态还是用不同掺杂物进行掺杂时。特别是，我们表明，用廉价的非致冷探测器获取的拉曼光谱具有足够的特异性，可以清楚地区分汽油样品，同时以低于 5%的检测限来表征特定的掺杂物含量。我们在这项研究中的有希望的结果首次说明了拉曼光谱与多元分析相结合作为一种低成本、强大的现场快速检测汽油掺假的工具的能力和潜力，并为在石油行业相关质量控制领域的应用开辟了实质性途径。
