Composition to Interfacial Activity Relationship Approach of Petroleum Sulfonates by Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry

In the present work, petroleum sulfonates were Obtained from three atmospheric residues (ARs) and characterized by-negative-ion electrospray ionization Fourier transform ion Cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry [(-) ESI FT-ICR MS], looking for an approach to,establish a relationship between molecular. composition and interfacial activity for chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) formulations. From the correlation of the (-) ESI FT-ICR MS data and the interfacial tension measurements, it was possible to infer that the composition and some characteristics, such as aromatic and/or naphthenic condensation, must be taken into account to understand the performance Of petroleum sulfonates. Obtained sulfonates contained mainly O3S, NO3S, O3S2, and O4S compounds but the relative abundance of each class depended directly upon the chemical composition of the raw AR. Both carbon: number (CN) and double bound equivalent (DBE) distributions of the. main classes provided a way to explain the lipophilicity and interfacial activity of the sulfonates: This information can be useful to establish the initial characteristics desired in ARs to produce petroleum sulfonates with appropriate capabilities for CEOR applications.