Determination of petroleum sulfonates in crude oil by column-switching anion-exchange chromatography

A column-switching anion-exchange chromatography method was described for the separation and determination of petroleum monosulfonates (PMS) and petroleum disulfonates (PDS) in crude oil that was simply diluted with the dichloromethane/methanol (60/40). The high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) system consisted of a clean-up column and an analytical column, which were connected with two six-port switching valves. Detection of petroleum sulfonates was available and repeatable. This method has been successfully applied to determine PMS and PDS in crude oil samples from Shengli oil field.