Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 22, 2026

Chemical Analysis of Water-accommodated Fractions of Crude Oil Spills Using TIMS-FT-ICR MS
Published on: March 3, 2017
Impact of different ionization methods on the molecular assignments of asphaltenes by FT-ICR mass spectrometry
Andras Gaspar1, Elio Zellermann, Sami Lababidi
1Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Platz 1, D-45470 Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
Abstract:
Over the years, ultrahigh resolution mass spectrometry has successfully illustrated the extreme complexity of crude oil and related solubility or polarity based fractions on a molecular level. However, the applied ionization technique greatly influences the outcome and may provide misleading information. In this work, we investigate the atmospheric pressure laser ionization (APLI) technique coupled with Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer to analyze the asphaltene fraction of a crude oil. These results were compared to data obtained by using other existing atmospheric pressure ionization methods. Furthermore elemental analysis and solid state NMR were used to obtain the bulk characteristics of the asphaltene sample. The results of the different ionization techniques were compared with the bulk properties in order to describe the potential discrimination effects of the ionization techniques that were observed. The results showed that APLI expands the range of the assigned molecules, while retaining information already observed with the generally used ion sources.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Chemical Ionization (CI) Mass Spectrometry
Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS): Interferences
Mass Spectrometry: Long-Chain Alkane Fragmentation
Electrospray Ionization (ESI) Mass Spectrometry
ESI utilizes electrical energy to transfer ions from the liquid phase of the sample into the...
Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry (ICP–MS): Overview
Mass Spectrum: Interpretation

