| Two major kinds of natural surfactants are released during oil sands extraction: carboxylic acids (naphthenic acids) and sulfonic acids. In this study, commercial surfactants were used as standards to establish the suitable analytical methods with optimized experimental and instrumental parameters. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was utilized in the work to separate individual surfactants in the mixture. For their identification and quantification, naphthenic acids were evaluated by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI – MS), while sulfonic acids were done by evaporative light scattering (ELS). The developed methods were then extended to the analysis of natural surfactant in oil sands process and tailings water. |
