The DOI matches its Crossref record; 23 of the 23 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Unraveling the Molecular Structures of Asphaltenes by Atomic Force Microscopy
Abstract
Petroleum is one of the most precious and complex molecular mixtures existing. Because of its chemical complexity, the solid component of crude oil, the asphaltenes, poses an exceptional challenge for structure analysis, with tremendous economic relevance. Here, we combine atomic-resolution imaging using atomic force microscopy and molecular orbital imaging using scanning tunnelling microscopy to study more than 100 asphaltene molecules. The complexity and range of asphaltene polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are established in detail. Identifying molecular structures provides a foundation to understand all aspects of petroleum science from colloidal structure and interfacial interactions to petroleum thermodynamics, enabling a first-principles approach to optimize resource utilization. Particularly, the findings contribute to a long-standing debate about asphaltene molecular architecture. Our technique constitutes a paradigm shift for the analysis of complex molecular mixtures, with possible applications in molecular electronics, organic light emitting diodes, and photovoltaic devices.
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The Chemical Structure of a Molecule Resolved by Atomic Force Microscopy
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Self-citationBiological activity in the deep subsurface and the origin of heavy oil
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Direct Imaging of Covalent Bond Structure in Single-Molecule Chemical Reactions
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Cited by
An sp-hybridized molecular carbon allotrope, cyclo[18]carbon
Kaiser, K., Scriven, L. M., Schulz, F., Gawel, P., Gross, L., & Anderson, H. L. (2019) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aay1914 · Cited by 673
Self-citationInterfacial behavior of asphaltenes
Langevin, D., & Argillier, J.-F. (2016) · Advances in Colloid and Interface Science · doi:10.1016/j.cis.2015.10.005 · Cited by 259
Metadata
- Authors
- Schuler, B., Meyer, G., Peña, D., Mullins, O. C., & Gross, L.
- Venue
- Journal of the American Chemical Society
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2015-07-30
- Volume
- 137
- Issue
- 31
- Pages
- 9870-9876
- ISSN
- 0002-7863 (ISSN-L)
- 1520-5126
- OpenAlex
- W2199686530
- Cited by
- 709
- References
- 23
- FWCI
- 46.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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