Online Monitoring of Microscale Liquid-Phase Catalysis Using in-Fiber Raman Spectroscopy

We report on the use of hollow-core photonic crystal fibers to monitor the evolution of chemical reactions. The combination of tight confinement and long interaction length allows single-pass spectroscopic measurements using less than a microliter volume of chemicals with good accuracy. As a proof of principle, we used here nonlinear Raman spectroscopy for a reaction screening of the acidic catalyzed esterification of methanol and acetic acid.

Automated summary

By utilizing hollow-core photonic crystal fibers, it is possible to monitor the evolution of chemical reactions with single-pass spectroscopic measurements using minimal volumes of chemicals. In this study, nonlinear Raman spectroscopy was employed for screening the reaction of acidic catalyzed esterification of methanol and acetic acid as a proof of principle.