Compositional elucidation of heavy petroleum base oil by GC × GC‐EI/PI/CI/FI‐TOFMS

Comprehensive two‐dimensional gas chromatography (GC × GC) coupled to time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry is a powerful separation tool for complex petroleum product analysis. However, the most commonly used electron ionization (EI) technique often makes the identification of the majority of hydrocarbons impossible due to the exhaustive fragmentation and lack of molecular ion preservation, prompting the need of soft‐ionization energies. In this study, three different soft‐ionization techniques including photo ionization (PI), chemical ionization (CI), and field ionization (FI) were compared against EI to elucidate their relative capabilities to reveal different base oil hydrocarbon classes. Compared with EI (70 eV), PI (10.8 eV) retained significant molecular ion (M^+·) information for a large number of isomeric species including branched‐alkanes and saturated monocyclic hydrocarbons along with unique fragmentation patterns. However, for bicyclic/polycyclic naphthenic and aromatic compounds, EI played upper hand by retaining molecular as well as fragment ions to identify the species, whereas PI exhibited mainly molecular ion signals. On the other hand, CI revealed selectivity towards different base oil groups, particularly for steranes, sulfur‐containing thiophenes, and esters, yielding protonated molecular ions (M + H)⁺ for unsaturated and hydride abstracted ions (M‐H⁺) for saturated hydrocarbons. FI, as expected, generated intact molecular ions (M^+·) irrespective to the base oil chemical classes. It allowed elemental composition by TOFMS with a mass resolving power up to 8000 (FWHM) and a mass accuracy of 1 mDa, leading to the calculation of heteroatomic content, double bond equivalency, and carbon number of the compounds. The qualitative and quantitative results presented herein offer a unique perspective into the detailed comparison of different ionization techniques corresponding to several hydrocarbon classes.     

Oxirane as a chemical ionization gas: Reactivity towards different classes of compounds

Oxirane chemical ionization (CI) gives numerous ions, including C₂H₃O⁺ and C₂H₅O⁺. These ions react with organic molecules through various specific ion–molecule reactions such as hydride abstraction, protonation, additions or cycloadditions. Oxirane CI allows discrimination between unsaturated compounds with [M + 43]⁺ and [M + 57]⁺ adduct ions and heteroatom functions with [M + 45]⁺ adduct ion. All are diagnostic ions. Oxirane CI permits selectivity during the ionization process of a mixture and discrimination of isomers.     

Characterization of a capillary dielectric barrier plasma jet for use as a soft ionization source by optical emission and ion mobility spectrometry

This paper presents the characterization of a source for soft ionization of organic molecules. This source is based on a plasma jet established at the end of a capillary dielectric barrier discharge at atmospheric pressure. He, Ne and Ar as pure gas or with different concentrations of N₂ are used as buffer gas for the plasma jet. Spectroscopic emission measurements are carried out along the plasma jet in and outside the capillary. The intensity variation of N₂⁺ lines, for example emission at 391.4 and 427.8 nm, can be associated with the protonation process which is the basis for the soft ionization. The mechanism of the N₂⁺ production outside the capillary, which is relevant for the protonation of molecules and sustains the production of primary ions, is investigated. The response signal of the ions in a nitrogen atmosphere was measured with an ion mobility spectrometer (IMS).     

Spectroscopic characterization of a microplasma used as ionization source for ion mobility spectrometry

We report a miniaturized excitation source for soft ionization of molecules based on a dielectric barrier discharge. An atmospheric plasma is established at the end of a 500 μm diameter capillary using He as buffer gas. The plasma jet which comes out of the capillary is dependent on the gas flow rate. The mechanism of the production of N₂⁺ outside the capillary, which is relevant for the protonation of molecules and sustains the production of primary ions, is investigated by spatially resolved spectroscopic measurements throughout the plasma. Possible application of such miniaturized plasmas is the ionization of gaseous compounds under atmospheric pressure as an alternative to traditional APCI (atmospheric pressure chemical ionization). The miniaturized plasma was applied as ionization source for ion mobility spectrometry where the common sources are radioactive, thus limiting the place of installation. First measurements of gaseous compounds with such a plasma ion mobility spectrometer with promising results showed detection limits comparable or even better than those obtained using common radioactive ionization sources.     

Oxidative Ionization Under Certain Negative-Ion Mass Spectrometric Conditions

1,4-Hydroquinone and several other phenolic compounds generate (M – 2) ^–? radical-anions, rather than deprotonated molecules, under certain negative-ion mass spectrometric conditions. In fact, spectra generated under helium-plasma ionization (HePI) conditions from 1,4-hydroquinone and 1,4-benzoquinone (by electron capture) were practically indistinguishable. Because this process involves a net loss of H^? and H⁺, it can be termed oxidative ionization. The superoxide radical-anion (O₂ ^–?), known to be present in many atmospheric-pressure plasma ion sources operated in the negative mode, plays a critical role in the oxidative ionization process. The presence of a small peak at m/z 142 in the spectrum of 1,4-hydroquinone, but not in that of 1,4-benzoquinone, indicated that the initial step in the oxidative ionization process is the formation of an O₂ ^–? adduct. On the other hand, under bona fide electrospray ionization (ESI) conditions, 1,4-hydroquinone generates predominantly an (M – 1) ^– ion. It is known that at sufficiently high capillary voltages, corona discharges begin to occur even in an ESI source. At lower ESI capillary voltages, deprotonation predominates; as the capillary voltage is raised, the abundance of O₂ ^–? present in the plasma increases, and the source in turn increasingly behaves as a composite ESI/APCI source. While maintaining post-ionization ion activation to a minimum (to prevent fragmentation), and monitoring the relative intensities of the m/z 109 (due to deprotonation) and 108 (oxidative ionization) peaks recorded from 1,4-hydroquinone, a semiquantitative estimation of the APCI contribution to the overall ion-generation process can be obtained.

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Graphical Abstract ?

     

Negative ion atmospheric pressure ionization mass spectrometry: Ionization of aromatic hydrocarbons

A corona discharge atmospheric pressure ionization source generates the reagent ions, OH^? and O^? ions in addition to better known O₂^? ions, when ambient air is used as the carrier. All three ions are gas-phase bases that could form negative ions from organics via proton abstraction. Ionization of simple aromatic hydrocarbons by O₂^? is thermodynamically not feasible. Simple aromatic hydrocarbons are ionized only by O^? and/or OH^? to form [M ? H]^? ions. However, [M ? H]^? ions do not appear in the mass spectrum as they undergo stabilization via clustering with predominantly oxygen atoms.     

Laser-Induced Acoustic Desorption/Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Laser-induced acoustic desorption (LIAD) was successfully coupled to a conventional atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source in a commercial linear quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer (LQIT). Model compounds representing a wide variety of different types, including basic nitrogen and oxygen compounds, aromatic and aliphatic compounds, as well as unsaturated and saturated hydrocarbons, were tested separately and as a mixture. These model compounds were successfully evaporated into the gas phase by using LIAD and then ionized by using APCI with different reagents. From the four APCI reagent systems tested, neat carbon disulfide provided the best results. The mixture of methanol and water produced primarily protonated molecules, as expected. However, only the most basic compounds yielded ions under these conditions. In sharp contrast, using APCI with either neat benzene or neat carbon disulfide as the reagent resulted in the ionization of all the analytes studied to predominantly yield stable molecular ions. Benzene yielded a larger fraction of protonated molecules than carbon disulfide, which is a disadvantage. A similar but minor amount of fragmentation was observed for these two reagents. When the experiment was performed without a liquid reagent (nitrogen gas was the reagent), more fragmentation was observed. Analysis of a known mixture as well as a petroleum cut was also carried out. In summary, the new experiment presented here allows the evaporation of thermally labile compounds, both polar and nonpolar, without dissociation or aggregation, and their ionization to predominantly form stable molecular ions.     

A selected ion flow tube study of the reactions of H3O+, NO+, and O2+ with saturated and unsaturated aldehydes and subsequent hydration of the product ions

We have carried out a selected ion flow tube (SIFT) study of the reactions of H₃O⁺, NO⁺, and O₂⁺ ions with several saturated and unsaturated aldehydes. This study is mainly directed toward providing the essential data for a projected SIFT mass spectrometry (SIFTMS) study of the volatile emissions from cooked meats, which always include aldehydes. Thus, it is necessary to know the rate coefficients and the product ions of the reactions of the above-mentioned ions, used as the precursor ions for SIFTMS analyses, with the aldehydes, if proper identification and quantification of the emitted species are to be achieved. The results of this study show that the reactions of H₃O⁺ with the aldehydes, M, result in the protonated molecules MH⁺ and for the saturated aldehydes also in (M - OH)⁺ ions resulting from the loss of a H₂O molecule from the nascent MH⁺ ion. The NO⁺ reactions invariably proceed via the process of hydride ion, H⁻, transfer producing (M - H)⁺ ions, but parallel minor association product ions NO⁺ · M are observed for some of the unsaturated aldehyde reactions. The O₂⁺ reactions proceed by way of charge transfer producing nascent M⁺ ions that partially dissociate producing fragment ions. Because water vapour is invariably present in real samples analysed by SIFTMS, the current experiments were also carried out following the introduction of humid laboratory air into the helium carrier gas of the SIFT. Thus, the reactions of the product ions that form hydrates were also studied as a prelude to future SIFTMS studies of the (humid) emissions from cooked meats.     

Direct Laser Desorption Ionization of Endogenous and Exogenous Compounds from Insect Cuticles: Practical and Methodologic Aspects

We recently demonstrated that ultraviolet laser desorption ionization orthogonal time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UV-LDI o-TOF MS) could be used for the matrix-free analysis of cuticular lipids (unsaturated aliphatic and oxygen-containing hydrocarbons and triacylglycerides) directly from individual Drosophila melanogaster fruit flies (Yew, J. Y.; Dreisewerd, K.; Luftmann, H.; Pohlentz, G.; Kravitz, E. A., Curr. Biol. 2009, 19, 1245–1254). In this report, we show that the cuticular hydrocarbon, fatty acid, and triglyceride profiles of other insects and spiders can also be directly analyzed from intact body parts. Mandibular pheromones from the jaw of a queen honey bee are provided as one example. In addition, we describe analytical features and examine mechanisms underlying the methodology. Molecular ions of lipids can be generated by direct UV-LDI when non-endogenous compounds are applied to insect wings or other body parts. Current sensitivity limits are in the 10 pmol range. We show also the dependence of ion signal intensity on collisional cooling gas pressure in the ion source, laser wavelength (varied between 280–380 nm and set to 2.94 μm for infrared LDI), and laser pulse energy.     

Gas‐Phase Oxidation of Methyl‐10‐undecenoate in a Jet‐Stirred Reactor

To better understand the chemistry of biodiesel surrogates, the gas‐phase oxidation of a C₁₂ unsaturated methyl ester, methyl‐10‐undecenoate, has been studied in a jet‐stirred reactor in the temperature range 500–1100 K. These experiments were performed using neat fuel synthesized in the laboratory, with an initial fuel mole fraction set as 0.0021, at quasi‐atmospheric pressure (1.07 bar), at a residence time of 1.5 s with dilute mixtures in helium of equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0. The maximum obtained conversion was shown to be more than twice lower than that of methyl decanoate under the same conditions. This difference cannot be reproduced by the only published model for an unsaturated ester with a close number of carbon atoms (methyl‐9‐decenoate). A large range of products was quantified in addition to common oxidation products: saturated and unsaturated aldehydes, saturated and unsaturated methyl esters with a second carbonyl function, C₂–C₁₀ alkenes, C₄–C₁₀ dienes, C₄–C₁₀ unsaturated methyl esters, C₈–C₉ saturated methyl esters, and saturated, unsaturated, and hydroxyl methyl esters involving a cyclic ether. Pathways of formation for the products specific to unsaturated ester oxidation were proposed, and possible model improvements were discussed.     

Kinetic and Thermodynamic Control of Protonation in Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization

For p-(dimethylamino)chalcone (p-DMAC), the N atom is the most basic site in the liquid phase, whereas the O atom possesses the highest proton affinity in the gas phase. A novel and interesting observation is reported that the N- and O-protonated p-DMAC can be competitively produced in atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) with the change of solvents and ionization conditions. In neat methanol or acetonitrile, the protonation is always under thermodynamic control to form the O-protonated ion. When methanol/water or acetonitrile/water was used as the solvent, the protonation is kinetically controlled to form the N-protonated ion under conditions of relatively high infusion rate and high concentration of water in the mixed solvent. The regioselectivity of protonation of p-DMAC in APCI is probably attributed to the bulky solvent cluster reagent ions (S_nH⁺) and the analyte having different preferred protonation sites in the liquid phase and gas phase.

Hydride transfer reactions via ion–neutral complex: fragmentation of protonated N‐benzylpiperidines and protonated N‐benzylpiperazines in mass spectrometry

An ion‐neutral complex (INC)‐mediated hydride transfer reaction was observed in the fragmentation of protonated N‐benzylpiperidines and protonated N‐benzylpiperazines in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Upon protonation at the nitrogen atom, these compounds initially dissociated to an INC consisting of [RC₆H₄CH₂]⁺ (R = substituent) and piperidine or piperazine. Although this INC was unstable, it did exist and was supported by both experiments and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In the subsequent fragmentation, hydride transfer from the neutral partner to the cation species competed with the direct separation. The distribution of the two corresponding product ions was found to depend on the stabilization energy of this INC, and it was also approved by the study of substituent effects. For monosubstituted N‐benzylpiperidines, strong electron‐donating substituents favored the formation of [RC₆H₄CH₂]⁺, whereas strong electron‐withdrawing substituents favored the competing hydride transfer reaction leading to a loss of toluene. The logarithmic values of the abundance ratios of the two ions were well correlated with the nature of the substituents, or rather, the stabilization energy of this INC. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fragmentation of Moxifloxacin and Its Analogs by Electrospray Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

The fragmentation of patterns of moxifloxacin, 2-N-methylated moxifloxacin (analog 1), and 1-cyclopropyl-6,7-difluoro-8-methoxy-4-oxo-3-quinolinecarboxylic acid (analog 2) were investigated by electrospray ionization quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry in the positive-ion mode. Many unusual ions were detected in the tandem mass spectra of moxifloxacin. Although the structures of moxifloxacin and analog 1 were similar, the relative abundances of products varied greatly. Comparison of the relative abundances of the product ions that lost CO₂ or H₂O and complementary product ions resulting from sequential four-membered hydrogen rearrangement showed that the differences were related to the protonation sites. The loss of HF, probably though the formation of an ion/neutral complex, is of scientific interest. The identities of the major product ions were confirmed by deuterium-labeling experiments that demonstrated an unusual loss of a deuterium atom. The major differences in fragmentation patterns were compared to previous reports in the literature.     

Novel kinetic modelling of methanol-to-gasoline (MTG) reaction on HZSM-5 catalyst: Product distribution

A new kinetic model of MTG process on HZSM-5 catalyst, which enables us to predict the distribution of the subdivided product, has been proposed. The new model includes four reaction steps with oxygenates, C₂~C₄ unsaturated hydrocarbons, C₅₊ unsaturated hydrocarbons, C₁~C₄ saturated hydrocarbons, C₅₊ saturated hydrocarbons and aromatics as the product lumps. The kinetic parameters have been calculated using this model. The objective function has been introduced to check the availability of calculation. Based on the above kinetic parameters, a MTG fixed bed process has been simulated kinetically by using Aspen Plus.     

Isobutane chemical ionization mass spectra of unsaturated alcohols

Analysis of the isobutane chemical ionization mass spectra of hexenols, cyclohexenols and various syn/anti pairs of bicyclic and tricyclic homoallylic alcohols shows that: (i) the spectra of the allylic alcohols are dominated by [M + H – H₂O]⁺ and [M + C₄H₉–H₂O]⁺ ions and contain traces of [M + H]⁺ ions; (ii) [M + H]⁺ ions are prominent in the spectra of acyclic and certain cyclic homoallylic alcohols; and (iii) [M + H]⁺ ions dominate the spectra of other acyclic unsaturated alcohols. The [M + H]⁺ ions may result from either: (a) protonation of the hydroxyl group, followed by a very rapid intramolecular proton transfer from the protonated hydroxyl group to the carbon–carbon double bond or internal solvation of the protonated hydroxyl group by the carbon–carbon double bond; and/or (b) direct protonation of the carbon–carbon double bond with significant internal solvation of the resulting carbocation by the hydroxyl group, which may lead to carbon–oxygen bond formation to give a protonated cyclic ether. The consequences of placing various geometric constraints on the possible intramolecular interactions between the hydroxyl group and the carbon–carbon double bond in unsaturated alcohols are explored.     

Plasma-Assisted Reaction Chemical Ionization for Elemental Mass Spectrometry of Organohalogens

We present plasma-assisted reaction chemical ionization (PARCI) for elemental analysis of halogens in organic compounds. Organohalogens are broken down to simple halogen-containing molecules (e.g., HBr) in a helium microwave-induced plasma followed by negative mode chemical ionization (CI) in the afterglow region. The reagent ions for CI originate from penning ionization of gases (e.g., N₂) introduced into the afterglow region. The performance of PARCI-mass spectrometry (MS) is evaluated using flow injection analyses of organobromines, demonstrating 5–8 times better sensitivities compared with inductively coupled plasma MS. We show that compound-dependent sensitivities in PARCI-MS mainly arise from sample introduction biases.

Ambient analysis of saturated hydrocarbons using discharge-induced oxidation in desorption electrospray ionization

Saturated nonfunctionalized hydrocarbons can be oxidized in situ by initiating an electrical discharge during desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) to generate the corresponding alchohols and ketones. This form of reactive DESI experiment can be utilized as an in situ derivatization method for rapid and direct analysis of alkanes at atmospheric pressure without sample preparation. Betaine aldehyde was incorporated into the DESI spray solution to improve the sensitivity of detecting the long-chain alcohol oxidation products. The limit of detection for alkanes (C₁₅H₃₂ to C₃₀H₆₂) from pure samples is ∼20 ng. Multiple oxidations and dehydrogenations occurred during the DESI discharge, but no hydrocarbon fragmentation was observed, even for highly branched squalane. Using exact mass measurements, the technique was successfully implemented for analysis of petroleum distillates containing saturated hydrocarbons.     

Simultaneous determination of pethidine and methadone by capillary electrophoresis with electrochemiluminescence detection of tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II)

In this paper, we described a simple and rapid method, capillary electrophoresis with electrochemiluminescence (CE–ECL) detection using tris(2,2′-bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) (Ru(bpy)₃²⁺), to simultaneously detect pethidine and methadone. Analytes were injected to separation capillary of 67.5 cm length (25 μm i.d., 360 μm o.d.) by electrokinetic injection for 10 s at 10 kV. Under the optimized conditions: ECL detection at 1.20 V, 30 mM sodium phosphate (pH 6.0) as running buffer, separation voltage at 14.0 kV, 5 mM Ru(bpy)₃²⁺ with 50 mM sodium phosphate (pH 6.5) in the detection cell, the linear range from 2.0 × 10^− 6 to 2.0 × 10^− 5 M for pethidine and 5.0 × 10^− 6 to 2.0 × 10^− 4 M for methadone and detection limits of 0.5 μM for both of them were achieved (S/N = 3). Relative standard derivations of the ECL intensity were 2.09% and 6.59% for pethidine and methadone, respectively.     

Capillary Atmospheric Pressure Electron Capture Ionization (cAPECI): A Highly Efficient Ionization Method for Nitroaromatic Compounds

We report on a novel method for atmospheric pressure ionization of compounds with elevated electron affinity (e.g., nitroaromatic compounds) or gas phase acidity (e.g., phenols), respectively. The method is based on the generation of thermal electrons by the photo-electric effect, followed by electron capture of oxygen when air is the gas matrix yielding O₂ ^– or of the analyte directly with nitrogen as matrix. Charge transfer or proton abstraction by O₂ ^– leads to the ionization of the analytes. The interaction of UV-light with metals is a clean method for the generation of thermal electrons at atmospheric pressure. Furthermore, only negative ions are generated and neutral radical formation is minimized, in contrast to discharge- or dopant assisted methods. Ionization takes place inside the transfer capillary of the mass spectrometer leading to comparably short transfer times of ions to the high vacuum region of the mass spectrometer. This strongly reduces ion transformation processes, resulting in mass spectra that more closely relate to the neutral analyte distribution. cAPECI is thus a soft and selective ionization method with detection limits in the pptV range. In comparison to standard ionization methods (e.g., PTR), cAPECI is superior with respect to both selectivity and achievable detection limits. cAPECI demonstrates to be a promising ionization method for applications in relevant fields as, for example, explosives detection and atmospheric chemistry.

Separation of unsaturated and aromatic hydrocarbons on capillary columns packed with barium sulphate

Summary Isomeric hydrocarbons with molecules having similar geometry but differing in the electron density distribution were separated on capillary columns packed with barium sulphate, a non-porous ionic adsorbent. Samples of BaSO₄ were washed free of foreign ions and modified by solutions of alkaline metal halides. The selectivity of the separation of unsaturated and aromatic hydrocarbons can be controlled by varying the conditions of the BaSO₄ treatment. Capillary columns packed with the ionic adsorbent were successfully used to separate all xylene and butene isomers, as well as isomers of cis and trans octene-2.