Detection of Denatonium Benzoate (Bitrex) Remnants in Noncommercial Alcoholic Beverages by Raman Spectroscopy

Andrzej Kwiatkowski; Malgorzata Czerwicka; Janusz Smulko; Piotr Stepnowski

doi:10.1111/1556-4029.12461

Detection of Denatonium Benzoate (Bitrex) Remnants in Noncommercial Alcoholic Beverages by Raman Spectroscopy

Abstract

Illegal alcoholic beverages are often introduced into market using cheap technical alcohol, which is contaminated by denatonium benzoate (Bitrex) of very small concentration. Bitrex is the most bitter chemical compound and has to be removed before alcohol consumption. The home-made methods utilize sodium hypochlorite to disintegrate particles of denatonium benzoate in alcohol and to remove bitter taste before trading. In this experimental studies, we propose a novel method that detects in a fast way the remnants of denatonium benzoate in dubious alcohol samples by Raman spectroscopy. This method applies a portable Raman spectrometer of excitation wavelength 785 nm and utilizes the effect of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to recognize the suspected alcoholic beverages. High effectiveness (over 98%) of YES/NO classification of the investigated samples was observed when the nonlinear algorithm support vector machine (SVM) was exploited at carefully adjusted detection parameters. The method can identify illicit alcohol within minutes.

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Authors (4)

Andrzej Kwiatkowski dr inż.
Malgorzata Czerwicka
- Wydział Chemii ZAKŁAD ANALIZY ŚRODOWISKA
Janusz Smulko prof. dr hab. inż.
Piotr Stepnowski
- Wydział Chemii ZAKŁAD ANALIZY ŚRODOWISKA

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Category:: Articles
Type:: artykuł w czasopiśmie wyróżnionym w JCR
Published in:: JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES no. 59, edition 5, pages 1358 - 1363,
ISSN: 0022-1198
Language:: English
Publication year:: 2014
Bibliographic description:: Kwiatkowski A., Czerwicka M., Smulko J., Stepnowski P.: Detection of Denatonium Benzoate (Bitrex) Remnants in Noncommercial Alcoholic Beverages by Raman Spectroscopy// JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES. -Vol. 59, iss. 5 (2014), s.1358-1363
DOI:: Digital Object Identifier (open in new tab) 10.1111/1556-4029.12461
Verified by:: Gdańsk University of Technology