Molecular Size of Asphaltene Solubility Fractions

A fluorescence depolarization technique was used to determine the molecular size of asphaltene solubility fractions of a petroleum resid asphaltene. The molecular size was determined at different emission wavelengths for each solubility fraction. For each subfraction the range of molecular size was found to vary considerably. However, at a given emission wavelength, the molecular sizes for the different asphaltene solubility subfractions are very similar, that is the subfractions differ from each other by different population distributions of the same set of molecules. The size variation among the different subfractions is due to the different molecular population distributions of the constituent components. The population distribution was estimated from published LDMS results.