I'd like to add a material to diesel to make it ionized?

Question

I know you can add aspirin to diionized water to make it ionized. I'd like to find out what I can add to diesel to make it ionized.

Suggestions?

thanks
john

flying dragon- I'd prefer to discuss the details off the answer site.

Reason I'm asking... ionized water can trip an electronic device and get a reading. I would like to develop a method/process where I can get an electronic device to read the presence of diesel.

Answer 1

Are you trying to make diesel fuel ionized? It is a mixture of oil like hydrocarbons they behave much differently than water, most substances that form ions in water won't dissolve in oil-like materials.

By the way why do you want ions in your fuel?

Added: I believe the new double-walled fuel tanks for gas stations have a detector of some kind to alert that the there is a leak in the inner tank (fuel getting into the space between the the inner/outer tanks) I'm not certian what technology is being used: maybe it is just a float hooked to a switch, maybe some kind of sensor, this might be of use to you, depending on how you want to detect presence of diesel. For locating leaks, confined space entry etc they have detectors for certian substances such a carbon monoxide, natural gas, etc, it might be worth checking with makers/vendors of industrial safety equipment to see if something for diesel is available. In terms of adding something to the fuel so that detection is easier, there are issues with it affecting engine performence or causing corosion and/or pollution issues, among other things. I'm not saying it can't be done but it will require significant research and testing.

Answer 2

Diesel is non polar solvent, so you can't iionised with any other material. The only way to ionized is rise the temprature. ( For details, study the basics of GC )

Answer 3

Diesel fuel analysis by GC-FIMS : Aromatics, n-paraffins, and isoparaffins:cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt
This study describes the development of a modified gas chromatography field ionization mass spectrometry (GC-FIMS) method for detailed hydrocarbon type determination of diesel fuel. Diesel fuels were analyzed by GC-FIMS, and the calculated hydrocarbon type composition profile was compared with that determined by other standard techniques. Results for total saturates, total aromatics, monoaromatics, and polyaromatics contents correlated well. Selected ion chromatograms demonstrated the separation of isoparaffins and normal paraffins in typical diesel fuels. The GC-FIMS method produced results for isoparaffin, normal paraffin, and cycloparaffin contents that did not require sample pretreatment to separate saturates and aromatics fractions. Analysis of a gasoline sample showed excellent agreement between GC-FIMS and detailed hydrocarbon analysis or PIONA for total cycloparaffin content, and reasonable agreement for iso- and normal paraffin contents. The normal paraffin contents of selected diesel blends measured by GC-FIMS correlated well with that measured by other methods. Experiments with internal standardization verified the accuracy of the GC-FIMS method for selected hydrocarbon

- One possible material may be LPG which helps in fumigation of Diesel fuel :www.dieseldynamics.co.uk
Diesel Dynamics supply and install LPG/Diesel dual fuel equipment for HGV, light truck and coach and bus applications. Trucks converted include Volvo, Scania, ERF (with Cummins M11), DAF and Mercedes.

- Other modes of ionization may include :
- Flame ionization detection-www.rsc.org/ej/AN/2006/b515274g
-Laser ionization ;www.springerlink.com/index/7F71L3UA0DR0JYQW