Comparison has been made of the occurence of aromatic series in chloroform fraction between immature and mature sedimentary rocks from the Hang.2 well in Chaidamu Basin. According to the general formula CaH2n-p (p=6, 8, 10, ..., 20), the molecular ion distribution of 11 series have been studied by capillary gas chromatography and GC-MS. It has been found that the immature.mature evolution of aromatic homologous obeys the rules in thermodynamics and can be summaried as: (1) The alkyl side chains decrease and become shorter in compounds of each series. (2) Alkyl and cycloalkanes aromatics (1--3 ring) increase, but cycloalkanes aromatics with more (4-5) rings decrease. (3) Aromatization is observed in alkyl benzene, alkyl naphthalene and alkyl phe.nanthrene series. (4) The bimodal distribution of carbon number curve changes into unimodal distribution. It seems that the variation in aromatic homologous distribution can be used as a potential indicator of maturatlon or as fingerprints for source-rock correlation.
The TM/TS index as the ratio of two isomeric peaks of C27H46 trinurhopane in the m/e 191 fragmentogram is one of the important molecular parameters for petroIeum geochemistry, which has found xcide application in identifying the degree of maturation of organic matter in China. It has been observed that the TM/TS index not only depends on the burial depth and temperature with respect to terrestrial crude oils and source rocks(i.e., it decreases with increasing burial depth and temperature), but also on the type of organic matter and sedimentary facies. So the application of the index indicative of maturation of organic matter is conditional.
