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| Finnigan LTQ FT mass spectrometer Thermo Electron announces the availability of a new application for its Finnigan™ LTQ FT™ instrument. As heavier crude oils make up larger proportions of worldwide petroleum reserves, effective processing of heavy petroleum, where variation in the oil composition directly affects the downstream processing, becomes increasingly important. For this reason, a better means of analyzing the composition of crude oil is necessary. To meet this challenge, Thermo has demonstrated use of the Finnigan™ LTQ FT™ hybrid ion trap mass spectrometer for analyzing petroleum samples. Historically, the characterization of petroleum relied on extensive chromatography prior to analysis by mass spectrometry. Moreover, traditional vaporization and ionization methods have proved ineffective when processing heavy crude oil. The extraordinary complexity of crude oil requires ultra-high resolving power and sensitivity for the analysis of polar components, which are found at low concentrations in petroleum samples. For the first time, routine, direct ESI (electrospray ionization) analysis of such compounds in heavy petroleum is possible using the Finnigan LTQ FT. Heavy crude oil is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons containing heteroaromatic rings in its polar fraction. The LTQ FT uniquely offers ultra high resolving power to separate isobaric species and measures masses accurately and reproducibly with external mass calibration. Identification of more than 3000 nitrogen containing compounds in a single experiment is possible. For this reason, Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometry has emerged as one of the most rigorous techniques available for the direct analysis of heavy crude oil. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Construction News :: home page |