Two n ‐heptane‐precipitated asphaltene samples, characterized by elemental analysis and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry, were fractionated according to relative molecular size by gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Both the whole asphaltene samples and their fractions were analysed by pyrolysis/gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. The data obtained from the pyrograms (average side‐chain length, aromaticity index, sulphur compounds vs. aliphatic compounds, presence of SO 2 and CO 2 ) demonstrated that, in the case of asphaltenes, GPC fractionation results in the separation of different chemical structures ranging from lower molecular mass, highly aromatic and polar compounds to higher molecular mass, less polar and aromatic compounds.
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Nali et al. (1994) studied this question.
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