Study and Evaluation of Aging Performance of Petroleum Asphalts and Their Constituents During Oxygen Absorption. III. Average Molecular Structure Parameter Changes

Abstract

The changes of the structural parameters of the average molecules of Chinese Shanjiasi and Shengli petroleum asphalts and their constituents during oxygen absorption were studied based on the oxygen absorption behaviors and the chemical group composition and structure changes. The results show that all the structural parameters of the average molecules of asphalts and their constituents increase clearly after oxygen absorption with the exceptions of the naphthene carbon rates and the paraffin carbon rates. The parameters include the total carbon numbers, the aromatic carbon numbers, the naphthene carbon numbers, the paraffin carbon numbers, the total ring numbers, the aromatic ring numbers, the naphthene ring numbers, the total hydrogen numbers, the aromaticities, and the concentration indexes. The most obvious are the structural parameter changes of the average molecules of the asphalt resin and asphaltene constituents. The structural parameter changes of the average molecules of Shengli asphalt and its constituents are remarkably greater than those of Shanjiasi asphalt and its constituents. The clearer changes of all the average molecular structure parameters of SHL asphalt resin and asphaltene, especially resin could possibly be one of the key factors leading to the much clearer deterioration of the colloidal stability and the serviceability than SJS asphalt in oxygen absorption.