Using a chemical reaction to distinguish molecules with the same chemical formulae

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Why is it important?

High-resolution mass spectrometry is able to provide enough molecular information in order to assign a chemical formula to a molecule in a sample. A chemical formula provides information about what atoms are in a molecule, and does not provide information on how those atoms are connected. How atoms are connected tell us if a molecule is toxic or non-toxic. We analyzed a mixture of undefined petroleum acid contaminants which contain high amounts of O4 species. These O4 species could be "double acids" or they could be "single acids with 2 alcohol groups". Our method is important because it demonstrates that we can distinguish between O4 double acids and O4 alcoholic single acids using a simple chemical reaction.