Asphaltene thin film properties and its potential use in organic electronic application

Abstract

In this work, asphaltene obtained from crude oil tank-bottom sludge (COTBS) was extracted and characterized. The asphaltene solids show hydrogen to carbon ratio of 1.30 indicating that it has high aromatic contents rich with π-π electrons. In thin film form, its optical band gaps are found to be 3.5 eV. In its intrinsic state, the electrical resistivity is measured to be within ~105 ohm-cm. Moreover, the surface morphology of the asphaltene film shows uniformity with root mean square roughness less than 10 nm. These properties suggest that asphaltene thin film that was obtained from COTBS could be used in organic electronics application.