@mastersthesis {52004,
	title = {Determination and characterization of naphthenic acids from the oil sands mine tailings in Alberta},
	year = {2004},
	pages = {149 pages },
	school = {University of Guelph },
	address = {Guelph, ON },
	abstract = {Naphthenic acids (NAs) are complex mixtures of naturally occurring acyclic and cyclic aliphatic carboxylic acids, with general formula Cn H 2n+Z O2 . They are responsible for the toxicity of the water in the tailings ponds of the oil sands mining industry. In this work, negative ion electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) has been proved to be a reliable and sensitive method for the characterization of NAs. ESI-MS was shown to be superior to atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry (APCI-MS) for the quantification of congeners using a standard addition procedure. Direct analysis of NAs from the tailings pond water was unsuccessful due to background ions{\textquoteright} interference. Partial separation of the congeners was achieved with anion exchange chromatography, and the fractions were subjected to ESI-MS analysis and toxicity assessment using the Microtox assay. This suggested that the Z = -4 family was responsible for a significant part of the aquatic toxicity of NAs.
},
	keywords = {chemistry, naphthenic acids},
	url = {http://search.proquest.com/docview/305188279},
	author = {Lo, C. C.}
}
