Synthetic Phenolic Antioxidants in Middle Distillate Fuels Analyzed by Gas Chromatography with Triple Quadrupole and Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Methods for the selective determination and quantification of 10 synthetic phenolic antioxidants (SPA) in jet and diesel fuels have been developed. The analytical procedure involves no sample preparation and uses direct injection of the diluted parent fuel into the GC column. Gas chromatography with both triple quadrupole and quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to quantify synthetic phenolic antioxidants in the range of 0.1−20 mg/L. Precision was in the range of 3− 9%. The method is demonstrated to be rugged and robust and, since no extraction is required, does not require estimation of extraction efficiencies. It is generally suited to volatile SPA compounds included in jet and diesel fuel specifications. The method is appropriate for the estimation of SPA in fresh and in-service middle distillate fuels stored on military bases and tankers or in use on aviation or naval platforms.

Investigation of the Thermal Oxidation of Conventional and Alternate Aviation Fuels with Comprehensive Two-Dimensional Gas Chromatography Accurate Mass Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry

“…3 Synthetic and other alternatively derived fuels have been reported as having good thermal stability properties, resisting thermal oxidation much better than conventional jet fuel, 4 notwithstanding the requirements of addition of materials such as synthetic phenolic antioxidants to the fuel. 5 As the use of these fuels increases around the world, it is important to understand the process occurring at a molecular level. 6 Thus, it is necessary that molecular speciation of the fuel is wellcharacterized.…”

The oxidative stability of synthetic fuels and fuel blends with monoaromatic blending components

“…The synfuels synthetic phenolic antioxidant content was measured before blending. The results are reported using a gas chromatographic triple quadrupole mass spectrometry method [15]. A chromatogram of the synfuels is given in Fig.…”

Time-Resolved Quantification of Phenolic Antioxidants and Oxidation Products in a Model Fuel by GC-EI-MS/MS

“…More recently, the application of a triple quadrupole (QqQ) provided promising results for detection and quantification of phenolic AOs in fresh and in-service middle distillate fuels when applied in GC-EI-QqQ-MS mode. Multiple reaction monitoring turned out to be well-suitable method to overcome analytical challenges requiring improved sensitivity, minimum background interference, and unambiguous identification of low-level analytes (ranges from 0.1 to 20 mg/L) in complex matrices without intensive previous sample preparation steps . Application of the relative “soft” gas-phase ionization technique, chemical ionization (CI), combined with the GC-QqQ in MS/MS mode even enabled lower quantification limits of 0.05 mg/L for 2,6-di- tert -butyl-4- sec -butylphenol and 0.11 mg/L for BHT in ICP-grade kerosene blended with 10% (v/v) 2-propanol as a model jet fuel …”

“…Multiple reaction monitoring turned out to be well-suitable method to overcome analytical challenges requiring improved sensitivity, minimum background interference, and unambiguous identification of low-level analytes (ranges from 0.1 to 20 mg/L) in complex matrices without intensive previous sample preparation steps. 17 Application of the relative "soft" gas-phase ionization technique, chemical ionization (CI), combined with the GC-QqQ in MS/MS mode even enabled lower quantification limits of 0.05 mg/L for 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-sec-butylphenol and 0.11 mg/L for BHT in ICP-grade kerosene blended with 10% (v/v) 2-propanol as a model jet fuel. 18 Although numerous publications on the antioxidative effect of BHT in fuels have been published, the majority of these works reports mainly the impact of AOs on the IP or analytical methods for determination of AOs.…”