Mass Spectra and Retention Indexes for Polycyclic Aromatic Sulfur Heterocycles and Some Alkylated Analogs

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASH) are ubiquitous in fossil fuels and pose risk to the environment due to their toxicity. Some PASH, resistant to degradation in the environment, are used to differentiate pollutant source and weathering. Although retention data exist for some PASH, few mass spectra are available, so misidentification often occurs between isomers in the same family. In this study, the retention behavior of 119 PASH on 14%-cyanopropyl/86%-polydimethylsiloxane (DB-1701ms), trifluoropropylmethylpolysiloxane (Rtx-200ms), 5%-phenyl/95%-dimethyl (Rxi-5ms), and 50%-diphenyl/50%-dimethyl (Rxi-17Sil-ms) are reported along with their mass spectra. This data is guiding on-going research aimed at identifying PASH in coal tar by multidimensional GC-GC/MS for compounds where standards are not available.

Retention behavior of isomeric polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles in gas chromatography on stationary phases of different selectivity

“…Complete baseline resolution was achieved for the three-ring PASHs. The elution order for the three-ring PASHs reported here is the same as previously reported by Mössner et al [18] and Zeigler et al [19, 31] on a 50% phenyl-MPS phase (DB-17ms). N12T and N21T have similar molecular shape parameters ( L/B and T , see Fig.…”

“…P19T is the only four-ring PASH with a MM 208 Da and elutes prior to all the MM 234 Da PASH isomers as expected on all stationary phases investigated (see Table 2). BbN23T and A12T co-elute on the 50% phenyl phase, which was reported in previous RI values [31]. The following two pairs of isomers have almost identical molecular shape parameters ( L/B and T , see Fig.…”

“…There have been only a few publications that have reported the GC separation of isomeric PASHs on the 50% phenyl [18, 22, 31, 32] and IL stationary phases [19]. The two 50% phenyl phases investigated here have been studied and represent a widely used phase for PAHs (Rxi-PAH and SLB-PAHms).…”

Retention behavior of isomeric polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

“…In recent decades, PAHs are one of the most studied groups of environmental contaminants because of their high carcinogenic and mutagenic potential [1–4]. However, their sulfur analogues, polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASHs), have received far less attention although their presence has been confirmed in air particulate matter [5, 6], sediments [7–9], coal liquids [10], diesel [9], heavy oil [11], crude oil [9, 11–17], shale oil [10, 12, 15, 18], coal tar [12–15, 19–21], mussels [7, 8], and fish [7, 8]. In addition, their carcinogenic and mutagenic potential have been reported [22, 23].…”

Retention behavior of alkyl-substituted polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

“…1) on both monomeric and polymeric C 18 stationary phases. In past decades, PASHs have received far less attention than PAHs despite their carcinogenic and mutagenic potential [9, 10] and their presence in air particulate matter [11, 12], sediments [13–15], coal liquids [16], diesel [15], heavy oil [17–21], crude oil [15, 18, 22–31], shale oil [16, 22, 32, 33], coal tar [22, 23, 29, 34–36], mussels [13, 14,], and fish [13, 14,]. In a previous study [37], we reported LC retention indices for 70 PASHs on both monomeric and polymeric C 18 phases.…”