TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying type of refined petroleum products in environmental media
T2 - Thin-layer chromatography (TLC) as a quick methodology
AU - Ko, Myoung Soo
AU - Kwon, Dongwook
AU - Yang, Jung Seok
AU - Kwon, Man Jae
AU - Lee, Seung Woo
AU - Lee, Seunghak
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments Financial support for this study was provided by the Geo-Advanced Innovative Action (GAIA) project (2013000540002) under the Ministry of Environment, Korea. The authors appreciate the support in the analytical work provided by Advanced Analysis Center in KIST.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland.
PY - 2014/11/12
Y1 - 2014/11/12
N2 - The ultimate goal of our study is to establish thin-layer chromatography (TLC) as a quick and simple method for identifying the type of refined petroleum products present in the environmental media. As a preliminary step, TLC chromatograms of different petroleum products, including gasoline, kerosene, and diesel, were characterized and compared. Methanol was determined as the optimum carrier solution in TLC analysis. The spherical-shaped TLC chromatogram of gasoline showed the longest migration distance, and thus the highest retardation factor (R f) of 0.91. This was followed by that of kerosene (0.63) with an elliptical-shaped, and diesel (0.24) with an elongated trapezoid-shaped chromatogram. R f of kerosene and diesel increased with the dilution factor, while gasoline showed a constant value. Additionally, it was observed that the TLC chromatograms of oils produced the same peak pattern with the corresponding petroleum products in gas chromatography (GC). A mixed sample of kerosene and diesel presented a triangular shaped chromatogram, underlining the need to consider the shape of chromatogram in addition to the R f value, as an indicator of the petroleum type. The findings indicate that TLC has a huge potential to be used as a quick and reliable method for identifying the type of refined petroleum products in the environmental media.
AB - The ultimate goal of our study is to establish thin-layer chromatography (TLC) as a quick and simple method for identifying the type of refined petroleum products present in the environmental media. As a preliminary step, TLC chromatograms of different petroleum products, including gasoline, kerosene, and diesel, were characterized and compared. Methanol was determined as the optimum carrier solution in TLC analysis. The spherical-shaped TLC chromatogram of gasoline showed the longest migration distance, and thus the highest retardation factor (R f) of 0.91. This was followed by that of kerosene (0.63) with an elliptical-shaped, and diesel (0.24) with an elongated trapezoid-shaped chromatogram. R f of kerosene and diesel increased with the dilution factor, while gasoline showed a constant value. Additionally, it was observed that the TLC chromatograms of oils produced the same peak pattern with the corresponding petroleum products in gas chromatography (GC). A mixed sample of kerosene and diesel presented a triangular shaped chromatogram, underlining the need to consider the shape of chromatogram in addition to the R f value, as an indicator of the petroleum type. The findings indicate that TLC has a huge potential to be used as a quick and reliable method for identifying the type of refined petroleum products in the environmental media.
KW - Environmental forensics
KW - Refined petroleum products
KW - Source identification
KW - Thin-layer chromatography (TLC)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84920260836&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11270-014-2149-9
DO - 10.1007/s11270-014-2149-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84920260836
SN - 0049-6979
VL - 225
JO - Water, Air, and Soil Pollution
JF - Water, Air, and Soil Pollution
IS - 10
M1 - 2149
ER -