Application of solid‐phase microextraction to the determination of polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles in Bohai Sea crude oils

Abstract

A simple and rapid solid-phase microextraction approach for the isolation of polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles from the aromatic fraction of crude oil is described. 8-Hydroxyquinoline silica gel impregnated with palladium chloride was used as a sorbent material for extraction. Operational parameters of the extraction solvents have been evaluated and optimized. Benzothiophene, dibenzothiophene, and benzo[b]naphtho[1,2-d]thiophene and their C1-C4 alkyl derivatives were identified and quantified by GC-MS. Under optimum conditions, the limits of detection for benzothiophene, dibenzothiophene, and benzo[b]naphtho[1,2-d]thiophene were 0.277, 0.193, and 0.597 μg/g oil, respectively. The recoveries for the polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles ranged from 81.5 to 92.1%, and the linear dynamic range was from 10 to 1000 ng/mL. The developed methodology was tested in the characterization of crude oil samples collected at the DY, SZ, ZH, and HC petroleum oil fields of the Bohai Sea. The results proved that SPE coupled with GC-MS is a promising tool for the quantitative analysis of polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles in crude oils, especially for oil samples with low concentrations of polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles.

Isolation and classification of a soil actinomycete capable of sulphur-specific biotransformation of dibenzothiophene, benzothiophene and thianthrene

“…; Yang et al . ). Most of the bacterial strains reported with the desulphurization property can remove sulphur from either DBT or BT.…”

Hydrogen/deuterium exchange in mass spectrometry

“…Identification and quantitation of sulfur compounds in crude oil is difficult. There have been several attempts to identify structures of thiophene compounds in petroleum samples by use of mass specrometry . A few studies reporting the detection of sulfur‐containing compounds by ESI and CI coupled with GC …”

“…There have been several attempts to identify structures of thiophene compounds in petroleum samples by use of mass specrometry. [335][336][337][338] A few studies reporting the detection of sulfur-containing compounds by ESI and CI coupled with GC. [339][340][341][342] Wang et al introduced the deuterium labeling technique to achieve characterization of sulfur-containing species in crude oil.…”

Characterization of Oil by Micro-Solid-Phase Extraction and Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

“…This method has been widely applied in various environmental applications, such as persistent organic pollutants in tissue (Basheer et al 2008) and carbamate pesticides (Basheer et al 2009) and phenolics in environmental water (Feng, Zhao, and Lin 2009). Our previous study showed that micro-solid-phase extraction isolated polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles from the polycyclic aromatic fraction of crude oil (B. Yang et al 2013). Thus, micro-solid-phase extraction may be effective sample preparation for oil spill identification.…”