Mass spectrometric composition and structural studies of pertroleum sulfonates and petroleum sulfonate components for utilization in tertiary petroleum production

A separation and mass spectrometric analytical method was developed for the separation and characterization of the monosulfonate fractions of petroleum sulfonate products. The technique is based on distillation and preparative column and thin-layer chromatography. The structure and carbon number distributions of monosulfonate fractions transformed to metilesters were measured based on their low resolution molecular mass spectra. The conditions of an actual petroleum container were simulated and the measurement of the effluent composition during its descharge revealed no change in the composition of monosulfonates. (Sz.J.)