Determination of Key Hydrocarbon Autoxidation Products by Fluorescence

Hydroperoxides and carboxylic acids are key primary products that arise in the autoxidation of hydrocarbons. We have developed a simple approach to rapidly and simultaneously determine both types of products using hydroperoxide- and acid-sensitive moieties conjugated to nonpolar coumarin- and BODIPY-based fluorophores. The coumarin- and BODIPY-conjugated amine probes described here undergo 38- and 8-fold enhancement, respectively, upon protonation in a solvent system compatible with heavy hydrocarbons. The latter can be used directly with our previously described hydroperoxide-sensitive coumarin-conjugated phosphine probe to enable rapid quantification of both carboxylic acids and hydroperoxides in hydrocarbon samples. The utility of the approach is illustrated by the ready determination of the differing relative rates of hydroperoxide and acid formation with changes in hydrocarbon structure (e.g., n-hexadecane vs 1-hexadecene vs a lubricant base stock). The method offers significant versatility and automation compared with common but laborious titration approaches, and greatly improves screening efficiency and accuracy for the identification of novel radical-trapping antioxidants for high temperature applications. This application was demonstrated by the automated analysis of hydroperoxides and carboxylic acids (by microplate reader) in samples from 24 inhibited autoxidations of a lubricating oil, which were carried out on a parallel synthesizer at 160 °C in triplicate in a single day.