Complete Group-Type Quantification of Petroleum Middle Distillates Based on Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS) and Visual Basic Scripting

Abstract

The subject of the presented work was the development of a two-dimensional GC×GC–time-of-flight mass spectrometric method (GC×GC-TOFMS) for the complete group-type quantification of petroleum middle distillates. The development of this method was possible due to the inherent features of GC×GC-TOFMS, namely the structured arrangement of compound groups and the mass fragmentation pattern, which provide the possibility of using Visual Basic Scripts as an analytical tool and thereby the classification of several thousand different compounds. The analysis method was focused on common petroleum based fuels from light to heavier middle distillation fractions. For the implementation of an absolute quantification method, a set of standard substances representing the main substance classes and carbon numbers within middle distillates and well-separated and recognizable internal standards were thoroughly chosen in order to obtain individual response factors and group specific response curves. The results of the qual...