Reimagining pH Measurement: Utilizing Raman Spectroscopy for Enhanced Accuracy in Phosphoric Acid Systems

Measurement of pH is an integral component of chemical studies and process control; however, traditional pH probes are difficult to utilize in harsh or complex chemical systems. Optical spectroscopy-based online monitoring offers a powerful and novel route for characterizing system parameters, such as pH, and is well adapted to deployment in harsh environments or chemically complex systems. Specifically, Raman spectroscopy combined with chemometric analysis can provide an improved method of online p[H+] measurement. Multivariate curve resolution (MCR) analysis of Raman spectra can be utilized to determine speciation as a function of p[H+], and the MCR scores assigned to each species can be used to calculate p[H+]. Subsequent chemometric modeling can be used to correlate spectral response to p[H+]. This was demonstrated with phosphoric acid, a chemical system known to challenge traditional pH probes. Raman spectra exhibit clear changes with pH due to changing speciation, and chemometric modeling can be successfully utilized to correlate those fingerprints to p[H+]. With the use of this approach, p[H+] of the phosphoric acid system can be accurately measured without foreknowledge of system conditions such as ionic strength.