The use of chemical composition and additives to classify petrol and diesel using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and chemometric analysis: a UK study

Suppajariyawat, Praew, Andrade, Ana, Elie, Mathieu , Baron, Mark and Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Jose (2019) The use of chemical composition and additives to classify petrol and diesel using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and chemometric analysis: a UK study. Open chemistry, 17 (1). pp. 183-197. ISSN 2391-5420

Full content URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/chem-2019-0021

Documents
The use of chemical composition and additives to classify petrol and diesel using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and chemometric analysis: a UK study
Publishers PDF
[img]
[Download]
[img] PDF
chem-2019-0021.pdf - Whole Document
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.

1MB
Item Type:Article
Item Status:Live Archive

Abstract

The identification of the fuel found in a crime scene and establishing its source is important for forensic investigations. In this study petrol and diesel samples were analysed in order to identify chemical composition and additives with the aim of obtaining a set of markers or compounds that will allow forensic scientists to identify fuel sources. The study was performed using petrol and diesel sold in the city of Lincoln (UK) during four seasons (winter, spring, summer, autumn).Diesel samples, representing eight different brands were analyzed by gas chromatography−mass spectrometry (GC−MS) and principal component analysis (PCA). From the GC–MS analytical results, MTBE and ETBE were identified as the additive more preferably added in super unleaded petrol samples that can be used to aid in separation and identification. In diesel, the distribution of FAME contents showed the effect of seasonal variation as these were found in all spring, summer and autumn samples, but not found in all winter ones. The selection of a reduced number of key fuel compounds and additives was also shown to be sufficient to achieve a high level of classification among the different fuel samples. Leave–one–out cross–validation was applied in order to validate the results.

Keywords:petrol, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, diesel, fuel additives, principal component analysis
Subjects:F Physical Sciences > F180 Analytical Chemistry
F Physical Sciences > F100 Chemistry
F Physical Sciences > F410 Forensic Science
Divisions:College of Science > School of Chemistry
ID Code:35607
Deposited On:11 Apr 2019 09:35

Repository Staff Only: item control page