Selective chromatographic separation of crude oil mixtures by online coupling with ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry

摘要

Ultrahigh resolution MS has shown to be the method of choice to study complex crude oil mixtures. Studies indicated that when measuring a whole crude the analysis suffers from discrimination effects. The information depth can be increased by using simplification steps such as SARA fractionation. Additionally, isomeric components can't be distinguished by mass spectrometry alone and an extra dimension is needed. While in any other field the use of HPLC/MS is a standard method, there are quite a few difficulties that make the online analysis with LC/MS more difficult. The major problem is that crude oil mixtures are very complex and not really homogenic in their compound distribution. For each problem a different selective separation method needs to be developed.