Crystal structure of asphaltene under mechanical stress of ball milling
Al-Ajmi, Fahad and Li, Jun (2024) Crystal structure of asphaltene under mechanical stress of ball milling. Fuel Processing Technology, 263. 108119. ISSN 0378-3820 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuproc.2024.108119)
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Abstract
This work aims to investigate the structural behaviour of asphaltene under mechanical stress using ball milling. Asphaltene samples were collected and separated from Kuwait export crude using n-heptane and subsequently ball milled for up to 24 h. X-ray diffraction was used to provide an insight into asphaltene macrostructure properties, which subsequently utilised to determine crystallite parameters. The results showed that the mechanical stress has a great influence on these structural parameters, with an increase of the aromatic sheet's inter-layer distance from 3.6 Å to 3.9 Å. While the height of stacked aromatic sheets per cluster and the number of stacked aromatic sheets per cluster decreased from 24.6 Å to 9.3 Å and 8 to 3.2, respectively. A significant increment in the aromaticity value was also observed after the ball milling experimentations, indicating mechanical stress induces cyclisation and aromatisation. The XRD profiles of the higher milling time samples reveals a high background intensity. This suggests a formation and/or increasing the proportion of highly disordered materials. In addition, the effects magnitude on asphaltene crystal parameters between the mechanical stress against heat stress was compared. The results showed core structural parameters are more sensitive to mechanical stress over heat stress.
ORCID iDs
Al-Ajmi, Fahad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2957-0001 and Li, Jun ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7685-8543;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 90391 Dates: DateEvent1 November 2024Published27 August 2024Published Online18 August 2024AcceptedSubjects: Technology > Mechanical engineering and machinery Department: Faculty of Engineering > Chemical and Process Engineering
Strategic Research Themes > EnergyDepositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 28 Aug 2024 11:29 Last modified: 01 Oct 2024 09:44 URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/90391