Use of ultrabright LEDs for the determination of static and time-resolved florescence information of liquid and solid crude oil samples

Abstract

Ultrabright light emitting diodes (LEDs) are an inexpensive alternative to laser diodes (LDs) and other short wavelength emitting light sources. They have a high stability, a long lifetime, and a very low power consumption. A large number of publications are already available for fluorescence applications using this type of LEDs. Most of them are describing fluorescence intensity measurements. Only some of them are dealing with time-resolved methods, like single photon timing. LED modulation fluorometry is a very recent application, which can also be used for environmental investigations, like the detection of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This article demonstrates the possible application of ultrabright LEDs for the time-resolved fluorescence detection of crude oil contaminated samples.