Authors / CoAuthors
Sandison, C. | Alexander, R. | Kagi, R.I.
Abstract
The technique of reaction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (R-GCMS) has been used to characterise the polar fractions of sediment extracts and crude oils. R-GCMS was shown to be rapid, to require only small quantities of sample for analysis and the products formed during analysis were readily identified. To undertake R-GCMS, glass liners for split vaporising injection containing the catalyst, palladium black, were placed into the injection port of a gas chromatograph. Hydrogen gas was used both as an effective reactant for gas phase hydrogenation/hydrogenolysis and as the carrier gas for the subsequent separation. The reaction products were mostly hydrocarbons, which were swept on to the column and readily resolved by the non-polar stationary phase and then identified by mass spectrometry. The fully active catalyst was effective in hydrogenating and isomerising alkenes and partially hydrogenating aromatic moieties. Desulphurisation of thiols, sulphides, and thiophenes also readily occurred. Primary alcohols, acids, esters and ethers were transformed into a hydrocarbon of one carbon atom less, while secondary alcohols were reduced to the parent hydrocarbon. Polar fractions, isolated by column chromatography from the bitumen extracts of the Heartbreak Ridge lignite (Bremer Basin, Western Australia; Eocene age) and the Monterey Formation shale (Naples Beach, USA; Miocene age), reacted to produce compound distributions that were characteristic of the organic matter sources. In contrast, polar fractions from crude oils of the Exxon Program release low to minuscule quantities of hydrocarbons during R-GCMS, and their distributions were remarkably similar to each other and thus not diagnostic of organic matter sources. R-GCMS experiments also demonstrate that asphaltenes, even when redissolved and reprecipitated repeatedly, contain a proportion of functionalised material of low molecular weight.
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nonGeographicDataset
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40215
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- External PublicationScientific Journal Paper
- ( Theme )
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- organic geochemistry
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
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2003-01-01T00:00:00
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geoscientificInformation
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34, 1373-1389
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