Description of diesel fuel based on synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy

The purpose of the study is spectrally characterise fuel Diesel used in diesel ship engine. For description of Diesel fuel the techniques of total synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy was applied. To characterise the oil, the spectrofluorometer ‘Aqualog Horiba’, which allows performing precise measurement in a short time, was applied to measure the excitation-emission spectra. Total synchronous fluorescence spectra of oil were obtained using various wavelength intervals basing on the measured excitation-emission spectra of Diesel fuel. Total synchronous spectra of Diesel oil are considered for several oil concentration. Synchronous fluorescence spectra were used to describe the detected maxima of Diesel fuel fluorescence by the wavelength-interval fluorescence maximum, containing information about the excitation wavelength and the wavelength-interval describing the characteristic fluorescence peak position for each considered fuel sample. That approach is discussed in relation to find a universal indicator – the wavelength-interval – as a possible tool proposed to Diesel fuel description independent from the fuel concentration. Therefore, we discuss the changes of the total synchronous fluorescence spectra for different oil concentration. Obtained results indicate that the best indicator for this kind of oil characterisation seems to be the wavelength-interval for 60 nm due to the independence of the synchronous spectra from the oil concentration.