Petroleum Crude Oil Characterization by IMS-MS and FTICR MS

Here, complementary ion mobility/mass spectrometry (IM/MS) and ultrahigh-resolution Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) MS analyses of light, medium, and heavy petroleum crude oils yielded distributions of the heteroatom-containing hydrocarbons, as well as multiple conformational classes. The IM/MS technique provides unique fingerprints for fast identification of signature conformational/compositional patterns, whereas FTICR MS analysis provides comprehensive heteroatom class distributions. IM/MS and FTICR MS results reveal an increase in compositional complexity in proceeding from light to medium to heavy crude oils. Inspection of the mobility results shows a high structural diversity for the CnHhXY (XY = N-1, S-1, N-1, O-1, NS, SO1-2, NO1-2, etc.) series, as well as a shift from planar to more compact three-dimensional structures with increasing mass.