The investigation of the bitumen from ancient Greek amphora using FT ICR MS, H/D exchange and novel spectrum reduction approach.
Recently Russian archeologists have discovered on Taman peninsula an ancient (V B.C.) Greek amphora full of dense bitumen. This is the oldest amphora in the world that contains bitumen. We report the investigation of this bitumen using ultrahigh resolution Fourier transform mass spectrometry. Also we used recently developed in-ESI source Hydrogen/Deuterium exchange approach for the structural characterization of the individual molecules and estimation of the biodegradation of the bitumen. The increase of number of the labile hydrogens compared to the non-degraded oil can serve as an additional evidence of the degradation of bitumen via oxidation. For the facilitation of the spectrum processing we have developed the special iterative spectrum reduction approach. It was observed that molecules that have only oxygen heteroatoms possess two -OH groups what is unusual for the petroleum. Based on this we suggested that the bitumen degraded during its being in amphora for 2500 years. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Novaya St., 100, Skolkovo, 143025, Russia.|Institute for Energy Problems of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskij pr 38 k.2, 119334, Moscow, Russia.|Emanuel Institute for Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygina st. 4, 119334, Moscow, Russia.|Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141700, Dolgoprudnyi, Moscow Region, Russia.
Yury
Y
Kostyukevich
Institute for the History of Material Culture, Dvortsovaya Naberezhnaya, 18, Saint Petersburg, 191186, Russia.
Sergey
S
Solovyov
Institute for Energy Problems of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskij pr 38 k.2, 119334, Moscow, Russia.|Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141700, Dolgoprudnyi, Moscow Region, Russia.
Alexey
A
Kononikhin
Emanuel Institute for Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygina st. 4, 119334, Moscow, Russia.|Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141700, Dolgoprudnyi, Moscow Region, Russia.
Igor
I
Popov
Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Novaya St., 100, Skolkovo, 143025, Russia.|Institute for Energy Problems of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninskij pr 38 k.2, 119334, Moscow, Russia.|Emanuel Institute for Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kosygina st. 4, 119334, Moscow, Russia.|Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 141700, Dolgoprudnyi, Moscow Region, Russia.
Eugene
E
Nikolaev
FT ICR, ESI; ancient oil; crude oil; dissolved organic matter; isotopic exchange