N M R Studies of Coal

Carbon-13 CP/MAS NMR was used to study a selection of fifty-seven New Zealand coals and ten Australian coals. The coal rank varied from lignite to semianthracite. A qualitative survey of the plant origins of NMR signals was followed by an EPR study of the unpaired spin-species in coal. The quantitative reliability of the NMR response of coal was analysed in relaxation and "visibility" studies. Different approaches to the problem of accounting for intensity in spinning-side-band (SSB) signals were assessed. The most successful approach was found to be the complete computer simulation of the spectrum from combinations of SSB intensity patterns broadened by a mixture of Lorentzian and Gaussian lineshapes. This method of analysis produced oxygen contents that showed a good correlation with oxygen contents (by difference) from Ultimate analysis. The resultant carbon, hydrogen and oxygen functional group analyses allowed considerable insight into the depositional influences on, and alteration of, the coal structure with increasing degree of coalification.