Characterization of Petroleum Heavy Oil Fractions Prepared by Preparatory Liquid Chromatography with Thin-Layer Chromatography, High-Resolution Mass Spectrometry, and Gas Chromatography with an Atomic Emission Detector

Abstract

In this study, a preparatory-scale fractionation method was developed. To verify the effectiveness of this method, an oil sample was fractionated into five fractions, referred to as saturate, aro1, aro2, polar1, and polar2; these fractions were completely characterized by thin-layer chromatography–flame ionization detection (TLC–FID), field desorption (FD) and (+) atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) high-resolution mass spectrometry (HR-MS), and gas chromatography with an atomic emission detector (GC–AED). TLC–FID analysis was used to compare the results obtained by the fractionation method to those obtained from the conventional saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes (SARA) method. FD–MS was employed to characterize the hydrocarbon class compounds in the saturate and aro1 fractions. As observed from the FD–MS spectra, non-aromatic hydrocarbon compounds were abundant in saturates, while mono- and diaromatic compounds were abundant in the aro1 fraction. This result is in good agreement with ...