SIZE EXCLUSION CHROMATOGRAPHY STUDIES OF AGED SHRP ASPHALTS

Abstract

One of Ihe objectives of the Strategic Highway Research Program is the development of a test procedure that accurately predicts pavement aging. In order to accomplish this goal, the nature and mechanism of oxidative-aging of asphalts must be known.

Eight asphalts were aged in a pressure-oxidation vessel at 60°C (140°F) and 2.07 x 10⁶ Pa (300 psi) for 144 hours (6 days) after a preliminary thin-film oven treatment. The tank asphalts and aged asphalts were separated by preparative size exclusion chromatography into two fractions: one consisting of large molecular size, associated molecules and the other consisting of smaller molecules with less tendency lo associate. The amount of the large molecular size fraction is greater in an aged asphalt compared with its parent tank asphalt. Number-average molecular weights of this large molecular size fraction increase substantially in some aged asphalts but not in others. Viscosities of smaller molecular size fractions (which comprise the bulk of both aged and unaged asphalts) of aged asphalts are not greatly different from viscosities of corresponding fractions of parent tank asphalts. Viscosities of the small molecular size fractions are much lower than viscosities of whole asphalts. Oxygen-containing functional groups were observed in both size exclusion chromatography fractions of all eight aged asphalts.

The above results can be rationalized by invoking a model of asphalt structure in which complex structural units composed of polar and/or aromatic molecules arc dispersed in a less polar solvent phase. The aping process causes buildup of more polar molecules, which increases the relative amounts of asphalt components that engage in associative behavior.