Monitoring the reaction between AlCl₃ and o-xylene by using terahertz spectroscopy

Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) is used to study the interaction between AlCl₃ and o-xylene in a temperature range from 300 K to 368 K. For comparison, the three isomers of o-, m-, and p-xylene are measured by using THz-TDS. The o-xylene carries out isomerization reaction in the presence of catalyst AlCl₃. The absorption coefficient of the mixed reaction solution is extracted and analyzed in the frequency range from 0.2 THz to 1.4 THz. The temperature dependence of the absorption coefficient, which is influenced by both the dissolution of AlCl₃ and the production of the two other isomer resultants, is obtained, and it can indicate the process of the isomerization reaction. The results suggest that THz spectroscopy can be used to monitor the isomerization reaction and other reactions in chemical synthesis, petrochemical and biomedical fields.