In this work, we use extrography and column chromatography as fractionation tools for increasing
compositional space accessibility in the APPI-FT-ICR mass spectrometric analysis of heavy crude oils.
Extrography fractionation was performed on a crude oil sample adsorbed on neutral alumina, using an
elutropic series. The crude oil was adsorbed on neutral alumina, and then we applied Soxhlet extraction
using acetonitrile, methanol, n-heptane, and toluene, to obtain fractions enriched in metal complexes,
polar compounds, maltenes, and asphaltenes, respectively. Considering that polar compounds are
responsible for complex operational problems such emulsion and deposit formation, we fractioned the
polar extract using normal phase column chromatography to obtain six additional subfractions. All of
the extracts were analyzed by APPI FT-ICR mass spectrometry. We detected eleven compound classes
in fractions and sub-fractions which were undetectable when analyzing the entire crude oil sample. In
terms of the number of molecular formulas, the whole crude oil sample exhibits 3700 while 11,800
compounds were detected in extrography fractions and column chromatographic sub-fractions. These
results indicate that combination of extrography and column chromatography increase compositional