Chemistry and properties of Arabian asphaltenes

Chemical and structural characterization studies have been carried out on four Saudi Arabian crude asphaltenes. The oxidation products were dominated by a homologous series of straight chain monocarboxylic acids suggesting that the normal alkyl chains are major constituents of the structure of both asphaltenes. The determination of the presence of a dicarboxylic acids series in the products indicated the presence of polymethylene moieties bridging two aromatic units. The presence of benzene tetra-, penta-, or hexacarboxylic acid in the reaction products suggested that the relatively large aromatic structures of both asphaltenes are peri-condensed. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 228th ACS National Meeting (Philadelphia, PA 8/22-26/2004).