PHOTOOXIDATION OF CRUDE PETROLEUM MALTENIC FRACTION IN NATURAL SIMULATED CONDITIONS AND STRUCTURAL ELUCIDATION OF PHOTOPRODUCTS

Photooxidation is an important process in the degradation of petroleum spilled in the marine environment.most crude oils spilled at sea spread rapidly to form slicks with greatly increased surface area. thus, afundamental understanding of the effect of photooxidation on oil is a prerequisite for providing an accuratedescription of the recent history and potential fate of oil spilled in a marine environment. the present workdescribes a reliable method for evolution and studies the nature of the photoproducts and composition ofthe residual hydrocarbons of an oil film over the seawater. the maltenic fraction of iranian oil was exposedto sunlight with simulated natural conditions as a film of oil over seawater . the effect of ultravioletillumination on using a variety of techniques including gc/ms and ft-ir was examined. the saturatedhydrocarbons were very resistant, but the aromatic hydrocarbons were particularly sensitive tophotochemical degradation . greater size and increasing alkyl substitution increased the sensitivity ofaromatic compounds to photooxidation.