Microscopic imaging of petroleum

[Andro89]

Hi! I have a doubt. Right now I am coursing in petroleum world. I like it. But I want to know, if I look at a microscopic imaging of petroleum How Can I detect microscopically the elements of oil.
For example:
Paraffins
Mercaptan sulfur.
And the others oil's elements.
Thanks to everyone.

 

[3DDave]

Since oil hasn't got a structure and the molecules in it also have no particular structure I expect you would see very little. Gas chromatography or mass spectrometry are more typical for analysis. If you are looking at rocks that contain oil, that's something a microscope can do.

 

[Andro89]

Ah. I understand you. Thanks very much.

 

[3DDave]

Don't let me fully discourage you - if you have access to a microscope, give it a try to confirm.

 

[Andro89]

Ok. I would like it. Jajja

 

[Andro89]

But if I can't see the elements through a microscopic How I know the structure of the paraffins, for example.
There are naphthenes that are cicleparaffins,..how I know that difference between paraffins and naphthenes?
Do you understand me, that I want to mean?
I live in Cuba and I don't have access to a microscopic to confirm or investigate every doubt that I have it...

 

[3DDave]

For that you need to talk with a chemist specializing in organic (carbon based) molecules. It's not so much an engineering field.

I think that the current method is to purify the material to a single molecule type and use x-ray crystallography to deduce what the structure must be after using combustion to determine what the exact ratio of H to C is.

For example - a benzene ring has 6 C and 6 H. Hexane has 6 C and 14 H. Cyclohexane (a naphthene) is 6 C and 12 H.

 

[IRstuff]

I would think that mass spectrometry is still the answer; it's like throwing a clock against the wall and figuring out what was inside by looking at all the broken pieces on the floor. I agree that single-component crystallography would be the next practical thing. One exotic thing might be atom force microscopy, but that might still require distillation or purification of individual components. AFM does, at least when it works, show actual physical structures at the atomic level.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[Andro89]

I knew the mas spectrometry but I did not know the crystallography. I'll investigate about that.