RI 6096 A Microhydrogenation Technique For Identifying Organic Sulfur, Nitrogen, Oxygen, And Halogen Compounds ? Summary And Introduction

In the course of the work currently conducted by the Bureau of Mines in cooperation with the American Petroleum Institute Research Project 48 on identifying sulfur compounds in petroleum, a micromethod was developed (12)5 for catalytically removing the sulfur atom from sulfur compounds. The product is the residual portion of the molecule; the structure otherwise was unaltered except for hydrogenation of any unsaturated bonds that were present in the original compound. Positive identification of sulfur compounds isolated from crude oils is a difficult problem. Direct comparison of properties of the unknown with those of reference compounds is often impossible because of the limited number of reference sulfur compounds available. However, a relatively large number of pure hydrocarbons is available, and the conversion of the sulfur compound to a hydrocarbon enhances the possibility of identification. The technique also can be used to prepare microquantities of scarce hydrocarbons by hydrogenating compounds that are readily available.