Presentation Profile
Molecular Rotational Resonance Technique for Rapid Analysis of Small Polar Impurities in Complex Mixtures
Currently Scheduled: 10/14/2025 - 2:00 PM - 2:20 PM
Room: South Lobby
Main Author
Sylvestre Twagirayezu - Lamar University
- Justin Neill - BrightSpec
Abstract:
We report recent advances in applying molecular rotational resonance (MRR) spectroscopy to environmental and petroleum analysis. Specifically, BrightSpec MRR techniques were employed (i) to monitor the products of heated mixtures of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and oxygen (O₂) in the presence of ammonium metavanadate (NH₄VO₃) as a catalyst, and (ii) to directly detect small polar impurities in gasoline. The resulting spectra exhibited rich but well-resolved rotational patterns, reflecting MRR’s inherent sensitivity to polar analytes. Spectral analysis enabled unambiguous identification of multiple species without requiring chemical separation. Linearity tests and limit-of-detection studies confirmed the analytical robustness of the method. These findings highlight the key advantages of MRR—high resolution, molecular specificity, and rapid multi-component detection in a single measurement. Ongoing efforts on expanding the range of applications to complex chemical systems will be given in this presentation
