Determination of aromatic composition of fuels by laser Raman spectroscopy

Abstract

Abstract The application of Raman spectroscopy to the determination of the aromatic content of gasolines and aviation fuels is reported. Since aromatic components have very high Raman cross‐sections owing to large polarizability changes under laser excitation, bands from these components will dominate specific Raman spectral regions. It is expected, therefore, that Raman scattering will be a particularly useful approach to broadly characterizing the fuel hydrocarbon makeup for aromatic content and the properties of fuels which are influenced by aromatic content.