DETERMINATION OF AROMATIC COMPOSITION OF FUELS BY LASER RAMAN-SPECTROSCOPY

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.