Determination of octane numbers of gasoline compounds from their chemical structure by 13C NMR spectroscopy and neural networks

Abstract A new theoretical model has been developed which explains the association between the molecular structure and the knock resistance of individual gasoline compounds convincingly. The constitutions of more than 300 individual gasoline components were correlated with their knock rating (Blending Research Octane Number, BRON) simultaneously. 13C NMR spectra of all compounds were binned in 28 chemical shift regions of different size. The number of individual carbon signals of the nearly 2500 carbons was counted in each shift region and was combined with the information about the presence or absence of the structure groups Oxygen, Rings, Aromatics, aliphatic Chains and oLefins (ORACL). T…