Analytical approaches to the investigation of kerogen structure by mass spectrometric techniques

Specific chemical degradation techniques have been developed to liberate structural elements from Green River Formation oil shale kerogen and from protokerogens derived from recent algal mats at Baffin Bay, Texas (U.S.A.). These degradation techniques include saponification, reduction by the novel complex hydride, sodium bis-(2 methoxy ethoxy) aluminum hydride (SMEAH) and treatment with trimethylsilyl iodide (TMSI). Saponification of the algal mats demonstrated significant changes in the composition of the protokerogen structure over the past 1,000 years.