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US 7,442,936 B2Granted
Infrared spectroscopy method for measuring the base number of overbased lubricants
AssigneeExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company
InventorsP. Thomas Reischman, John S. Szobota
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Abstract
The present invention provides a method for measuring a lubricant's total basicity by measuring one or more preselected infrared absorption bands of a lubricant and correlating the measured bands to the basicity. Preferably, the measured bands are due to carbonate or sulfate species in the lubricant.
Claims3
A method that is suitable for determining the TBN of an overbased lubricant composition over the entire range of TBN levels for overbased lubricants, the method comprising:
- measuring one or more pre-selected infrared absorption bands of the lubricant using ATR IR wherein the absorption bands are in the range of 1524-1400 cm−1, about 863 cm−1 and about 683 cm−1;
- and
- correlating the absorbance of the measured bands to the lubricant TBN.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.