Home – Home – Jornals – Chemistry for Sustainable Development 2018 number 1

A new approach towards determination of structure and composition of fragments coupled via a C--O bond in ethers and esters of petroleum and natural bitumen oils is developed. It is based on the use of the known chemical reaction of selective cleavage of ether/ester bridges in petroleum oil components using BBr₃. Unlike the known approach involving the stage for reduction of products of chemical modification of oils with lithium aluminium hydride, it is proposed to analyse the composition of the resulting organic bromides by the GC-MS method. Mono- and dibromo derivatives of C₁₃-C₂₂ alkyltrimethylbenzenes are identified in chemical modification products on an example of natural bitumen oils from the Ashalchinsk field (Tatarstan). Unlike С₁₈-С₂₂ compounds, С₁₃-С₁₇ homologues are not detected in initial oils, therefore they are entirely coupled to other fragments of complex high molecular mass formations by one or two ester-ether bridges. Furthermore, as established during analysis of GC/MS results, there are ions corresponding to monobromides of characteristic fragment ions of n -alkanes, and also to mono- and dibromides of characteristic molecular ions of naphthalene, phenanthrene, dibenzothiophene, and their homologues. Hence, in complex high molecular mass formations of the studied oils, some of the listed compounds are linked via one or two ether/ester bridges.