Monocyclic and monoaromatic naphthenic acids: synthesis and characterisation

Characterisation of the complex mixtures of carboxylic acids (naphthenic acids) occurring in crude oils and in degraded oil sands is environmentally important. Indeed some acids in waters from oil platforms are apparently hormonally active, and the oil sands acids are said to be toxic to a wide rang...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental chemistry letters 2011-12, Vol.9 (4), p.525-533
Main Authors: Rowland, S. J, West, C. E, Scarlett, A. G, Jones, D, Boberek, M, Pan, L, Ng, M, Kwong, L, Tonkin, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acids
Analytical Chemistry
aromatic acids
carboxylic acids
Chemical synthesis
Crude oil
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecotoxicology
Environment
Environmental Chemistry
gas chromatography
Geochemistry
mass spectrometry
naphthenates
Oil sands
oils
Original Paper
Pollution
toxicity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Characterisation of the complex mixtures of carboxylic acids (naphthenic acids) occurring in crude oils and in degraded oil sands is environmentally important. Indeed some acids in waters from oil platforms are apparently hormonally active, and the oil sands acids are said to be toxic to a wide range of biota. Previous attempts to identify monocyclic and monoaromatic naphthenic acids have been hampered by the lack of authenticated synthetic reference compounds. Some studies have indicated that acids with ethanoic acid side chains are present in the naphthenic acids mixtures, so in the present study, we synthesised and characterised by mass spectrometry, a range (C8–14) of monoaromatic and monocyclic ethanoic acids. Using 2-D comprehensive gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, we then compared the retention times and mass spectra of the synthetic acids with those of a commercial naphthenic acids mixture. Some alicyclic and numerous aromatic acids were successfully identified.
ISSN:1610-3653
1610-3661
DOI:10.1007/s10311-011-0314-6