Dutta T K, Harayama S
Marine Biotechnology Institute, Kamaishi, Iwate, Japan.
Environ Sci Technol. 2001 Jan 1;35(1):102-7. doi: 10.1021/es001165a.
It has long been believed that the n-hexane fraction of crude oil only contains saturates. However, we found that one-third of its content was aromatics with long alkyl side chains and that these aromatics could be separated from the saturates by preparative thin-layer chromatography. The separated alkylaromatic fraction was characterized by UV-visible, NMR and mass spectrometries. A gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis showed the presence of a homologous series of long-side-chain n-alkylaromatics, namely mono-, di-, and tri-n-alkylbenzenes in the C7-C27 range (the subscript to C indicates the total number of carbon atoms in the alkyl side chain) and di- and tri-n-alkylbenzothiophenes in the C3-C22 range. The biodegradation of these crude oil components by a natural bacterial population in seawater and their photooxidation by artificial sunlight were investigated. The n-alkylbenzenes were found to be quite susceptible to biodegradation but resistant to photooxidation, whereas the n-alkylbenzothiophenes were almost completely photooxidized and substantially biodegraded.
长期以来，人们一直认为原油的正己烷馏分仅含有饱和烃。然而，我们发现其含量的三分之一是带有长烷基侧链的芳烃，并且这些芳烃可以通过制备型薄层色谱法与饱和烃分离。分离出的烷基芳烃馏分通过紫外可见光谱、核磁共振光谱和质谱进行表征。气相色谱 - 质谱分析表明存在一系列同系物的长侧链正烷基芳烃，即在C7 - C27范围内的单、二和三正烷基苯（C的下标表示烷基侧链中的碳原子总数）以及在C3 - C22范围内的二和三正烷基苯并噻吩。研究了这些原油成分在海水中被天然细菌群落的生物降解以及被人工阳光的光氧化作用。发现正烷基苯很容易被生物降解但对光氧化有抗性，而正烷基苯并噻吩几乎完全被光氧化且基本被生物降解。
