Chemical analysis of additives included in fully formulated oils using high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry.

Rationale: Fully formulated oils (FFOs) are chemically complex petrochemical products composed of base oil and additive mixtures that are employed in automotive engines to provide lubrication. In particular, the additive portion of FFOs is often precisely controlled to tailor the resultant formulation to a specific role. Analysis of the additive composition of both used and unused FFOs is therefore of great importance within the petroleum, automotive, and wider engineering industries.

Detailed chemical analysis of a fully formulated oil using dielectric barrier discharge ionisation-mass spectrometry.

Rationale: Fully formulated oils (FFOs) are integral to automotive lubrication; however, detailed compositional analysis is challenging due to high levels of chemical complexity. In particular, existing mass spectrometric approaches often target particular FFO components, leading to poor analytical coverage of the overall formulation, with increased overheads and analytical timescales.

Methods: Herein we report the application of a commercially available SICRIT SC-20 dielectric barrier discharge ionisation (DBDI) source and Thermo Fisher Scientific LTQ Orbitrap XL to the analysis of an FFO.