PEGG: Recent Research

How to Get the Hump
C. Anthony Lewis^a, Steven J. Rowland^a, Ellen N.M. Woolfenden^a,b, James D. Wilson^a, Charles E. West^a, Katherine M. Watts^a, Gemma Riley^a, Eliza J. Pierce^a, Simon O. Littler^a, George E. Harrison^a, Adam F. Gross^a, Harry Destecroix^a, Dong Ming^a, Stuart J. Cook^a, Joseph A.J. Ayres^a and Shayna K. Allen^a
^a	Petroleum & Environmental Geochemistry Group, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, Devon PL4 8AA, U.K.
^b	Present Address: Present Address: Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
Presented at: 24^th IMOG, Bremen, Germany, 6-11 September 2009.
Download: Poster as an A4 pdf file.

Petroleum is complex mixture of components, a large part of which is not resolvable by conventional chromatographic techniques. This material is known as the unresolved complex mixture (UCM) or, more prosaically, the hump. Chemical, chromatographic and spectroscopic investigations of both the aliphatic and the aromatic UCM isolated from petroleum have shown that many of the components are isomeric. Consequently, we wondered whether it would be possible to create a UCM from structurally similar components. We report the synthesis and chromatographic and mass spectrometric properties of a subset of all the possible alkanes having a molecular formula of C₁₉H₄₀.

How to Get the Hump

C. Anthony Lewisa, Steven J. Rowlanda, Ellen N.M. Woolfendena,b, James D. Wilsona, Charles E. Westa, Katherine M. Wattsa, Gemma Rileya, Eliza J. Piercea, Simon O. Littlera, George E. Harrisona, Adam F. Grossa, Harry Destecroixa, Dong Minga, Stuart J. Cooka, Joseph A.J. Ayresa and Shayna K. Allena

Summary