High-temperature vapor detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon fluorescence

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are generated from the incomplete c ombustion of organic matters in a wide variety of natural arid man-made mat erials, such as fuels. It is important to develop an analytical technique f or rapidly monitoring PAH generation at high temperatures during pyrolysis processes. This work describes a real-time and in situ technique using lase r-induced fluorescence to detect PAH vapors at elevated temperatures. We re port fluorescence spectra of several typical PAH model compounds, such as p yrene, phenanthrene and chrysene. We have also examined the temperature eff ects on PAH fluorescence spectra such as spectral shift, intensity and band width. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. Ail rights reserved.