Abstract
The effect of alkyl side chain of aromatic compounds on liquid chromatography was studied. Aromatic fraction from Kuwait gas oil was separated into 40 cuts by liquid chromatography of alumina column. The resulting cuts were measured by mass spectrometer to trace the carbon number distribution of each type of aromatic compounds. The relationship between the change in carbon number distribuiton and elution order was studied. On naphthalene, benzothiophene, and acenapththene-biphenyl series, ploting the mean carbon number of alkyl side chain against the volume of effluent run out the column, monotone decreasing curves were obtained. It has been shown by this study that alkyl side chain decreases the adsorption affinity of the molecule to alumina and that the greater alkyl group reduces adsorption affinity. According to the increase in the carbon number of alkyl chian in the molecule, this effect becomes more significant. Chromatographic features of aromatic fraction in Kuwait gas oil were also studied.
