Raman Spectroscopy of Disperse Systems with Varying Particle Sizes and Correction of Signal Losses

Abstract

In this paper, a dispersion of glass beads of different sizes in an ammonium nitrate solution is investigated with the aid of Raman spectroscopy. The signal losses caused by the dispersion are quantified by an additional scattered light measurement and used to correct the measured ammonium nitrate concentration. Each individual glass bead represents an interface at which the excitation laser is deflected from its direction causing distortion in the received Raman signal. It is shown that the scattering losses measured with the scattered light probe correlate with the loss of the Raman signal, which means that the data obtained can be used to correct the measured values. The resulting correction function considers different particle sizes in the range of 2–99 µm as well as ammonium nitrate concentrations of 0–20 wt% and delivers an RMSEP of 1.952 wt%. This correction provides easier process access to dispersions that were previously difficult or impossible to measure.

Keywords

• disperse phase
• continuous phase
• optical spectroscopy
• particle measurement
• process control
• Raman spectroscopy