Metals occurring in crude oil in a great variety of complexed forms are minor but important constituents as they affect the refining and production operations, as well as participate in geochemical processes. These roles of metals are thought to be related to their chemical state the knowledge of which requires performing speciation analysis. While exact metal speciation in crude oil still remains obscure, earnest efforts to decipher it based on using up-to-date hyphenated techniques have been attempted in the past decade. With various levels of fractionation of vanadium and nickel species, liquid chromatography with ICP-MS detection allows for an insight into metal distribution in crude oil or its fractions, according to species molecular weight or polarity. Further speciation information on the metal coordination in a variety of porphyrin compounds can be gained by the use of Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. Individual species of mercury are often available for quantification with gas chromatography-ICP-MS as the method of choice. This mini-review is aimed at revealing and giving rise to the development of those speciation strategies and approaches that can achieve the objectives of identification, characterization and determination of metal species in crude oil and its fractions.

中文翻译：

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石油的金属形态分析：神话还是现实？

原油中以多种络合形式存在的金属是次要但重要的成分，因为它们影响炼油和生产操作，并参与地球化学过程。金属的这些作用被认为与其化学状态有关，而化学状态需要进行形态分析。虽然原油中确切的金属形态仍然不清楚，但在过去十年中，人们已经尝试基于使用最新的连字符技术对其进行认真的破译。通过对钒和镍物质进行不同级别的分馏，使用 ICP-MS 检测的液相色谱可以根据物质的分子量或极性深入了解原油或其馏分中的金属分布。通过使用傅立叶变换离子回旋共振质谱，可以获得有关各种卟啉化合物中金属配位的进一步形态信息。使用气相色谱-ICP-MS 作为首选方法，通常可以对单个种类的汞进行定量。这篇小型综述旨在揭示和促进那些能够实现原油及其馏分中金属物种的识别、表征和测定目标的物种形成策略和方法的发展。