Structural-group characteristics of asphaltenes of fuel oils of different chemical nature.

The physicochemical and structural-group characteristics of fuel oils of heavy and light oils are studied. Using the methods of elemental, structural-group analyses, and IR spectroscopy, similarities and differences in their elemental and structural-group composition and the composition of fragments containing heterofunctions are revealed. It is found out that asphaltenes of the fuel oil of heavy oil differ from those of the fuel oil of light oil in a higher molecular mass, which is due to the larger sizes of mean macromolecules. The large sizes of mean macromolecules are associated with a higher number of less cyclic structural blocks consisting predominantly from aromatic rings. A feature of such blocks is also the presence of longer and weakly branched paraffin chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]