1 δ13C of aromatic compounds in sediments, oils and 2 atmospheric emissions: a review 3 Alex I. Holman a, Kliti Grice a* 4 5 a Western Australia Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre, The Institute for 6 Geoscience Research, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University, 7 GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia 8 9 * Corresponding author 10 Alex Holman: Tel.: +61(0) 8 9266 9723. E-mail address:
[email protected] 11 Kliti Grice: Tel.: +61(0) 8 9266 2474. E-mail address:
[email protected] 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Abstract 20 This review discusses major applications of stable carbon isotopic 21 measurements of aromatic compounds, along with some specific technical aspects 22 including purification of aromatic fractions for baseline separation. δ13C 23 measurements of organic matter (OM) in sediments and oils are routine in all 24 fields of organic geochemistry, but they are predominantly done on saturated 25 compounds. Aromatic compounds are important contributors to sedimentary 26 organic matter, and provide indication of diagenetic processes, OM source, and 27 thermal maturity. Studies have found evidence for a small 13C-enrichment during 28 diagenetic aromatisation of approximately 1 to 2 ‰, but the formation of polycyclic 29 aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from combustion and hydrothermal processes 30 seems to produce no effect. Likewise, maturation and biodegradation also produce 31 only small isotopic effects. An early application of δ13C of aromatic compounds was 32 in the classification of oil families by source. Bulk measurements have had some 33 success in differentiating marine and terrigenous oils, but were not accurate in all 34 settings.