Combination of Negative Electrospray Ionization and Positive Atmospheric Pressure Photoionization Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry as a Quantitative Approach of Acid Species in Crude Oils

摘要

Crude oils differ from one another in numerous chemical and physical properties, many of which play an important role in defining their quality and price. Generally, statistical analysis of price differentials has focused on two main properties: density and sulfur content. However, the growing significance of high total acid number (TAN) crude oils, especially from developing countries, has aroused the necessity for extending these models. Consequently, refineries must obtain real and exact information regarding crude oil quality to achieve optimal crude oil selection and processing decisions. This could be attained when a detailed molecular-level characterization is performed. The present work presents the combination of negative electrospray ionization [(-)ESI] and positive atmospheric pressure photoionization [(+)APPI] Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry, as a prominent approach to semi-quantify the acid species comprised in crude oils. A novel polarity index is proposed that corrects the relative abundances of (-)ESI classes, where mainly acid species are detected. By consideration of different indexes, it was possible to enhance the correlation coefficients (R-2) from 0.579 to 0.986 between the percentage of acid compounds and TAN of crude oils, where most of the samples stand close to a linear tendency. These results avoid the deviations observed in previous works on.the correlations between relative abundances of the O2 class through (-)ESI and TAN and could support achieving optimal crude oil selection and defining their quality and price.