AGGREGATION OF ASPHALTENES OBTAINED FROM A BRAZILIAN CRUDE OIL IN AROMATIC SOLVENTS

Abstract

Surface and interfacial tensions in model systems formed by a Brazilian crude oil n-pentane insolubles (C5I) and n-heptane insolubles (C7I) in three different aromatic solvents: toluene, pyridine and nitrobenzene, were measured at room temperature, employing an automatic tensiometer and using the ring method. The results obtained indicated possible asphaltene aggregation and allowed the determination of critical micelle concentrations (c.m.c) for both C5I and C7I fractions in each of the three solvents considered. In toluene and pyridine solutions, the C5I fraction consistently presented higher c.m.c. values indicating a lower tendency of association for the organic fraction contained in the C5I, and absent in the C7I. In nitrobenzene solutions, this extra organic fraction appears to facilitate asphaltene association, possibly due to the formation of mixed aggregates. Average molecular areas for asphaltenes adsorbed at different interfaces were estimated using measured tensions and found to be in agreement with literature values and suggest a the flatwise surface adsorption of asphaltene molecules. This is consistent with the currently accepted stacking aggregation mechanism of asphaltenes.