Resolution and chemical formula identification of aromatic hydrocarbons and aromatic compounds containing sulfur, nitrogen, or oxygen in petroleum distillates and refinery streams.

An all-glass heated inlet system has been interfaced to a dual-trap Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer. The inlet vaporizes a mixture of species of widely different boiling points, and the interface maintains a large (factor of 10(10)) pressure gradient between the inlet and the mass spectrometer, making possible the analysis of petroleum distillates and refinery streams at very high mass resolution. Ions generated by low-energy electron ionization in the source trap of the spectrometer are transferred to the analyzer trap, where the pressure is at least 2 orders of magnitude lower. Singly-charged ions from a mass window of ∼20 u are isolated by stored-waveform radial ejection, to reduce space charge and increase digital resolution:  routine mass resolving power >200 000 (based on magnitude-mode peak full width at half-height) is thereby achieved throughout the full mass window. The mass window may be incremented stepwise to cover the full mass range of several hundred units. The FT-ICR mass spectrum of a gas oil aromatic neutral fraction contained peaks resulting from the resolution of ions having 358 distinct formulas over a mass range of ∼42 u. C(3)/SH(4), (13)C/CH, (13)CH/N, CH(2)/N, and other mass doublets were baseline-resolved, yielding typical mass measurement inaccuracies of ∼1 ppm. For example, (13)C(12)C(17)H(20)S(+) and C(21)H(17)(+), which differ by only 0.0011 u at ∼269 u, were clearly resolved. A 40 000 resolving power low-voltage spectrum of the aromatic neutrals, acquired by use of a Kratos MS-50 double-focusing instrument, was processed with a computer-based deisotoping/formula assignment procedure. The algorithm of the program is outlined and illustrated. Remarkably good agreement exists between the FT-ICR and MS-50 results. However, instrumental rather than indirect resolution of ions clearly enhances analytical accuracy and significantly reduces data-processing time. Thus, we have demonstrated that FT-ICR is the mass analysis of choice for differentiating hydrocarbons from heteroatom-containing compounds in petroleum distillates and refinery streams.