Phenols as chemical fossils in coals. [Book chapter]
- Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
It is generally considered that vitrinite, the principal maceral in most coals, represents coalified, partly decayed wood. Hence lignin should be one of the important precursors to the vitrinites in coals. Accordingly, it would be interesting to know whether any chemical fossils related to lignin could be found in coals. The purpose of this paper is to report what we believe to be a successful search for such fossils. The experimental approach exploited a degradation reaction developed in a study of soil humic acids by Burges et al. This reaction involves a reductive degradation with sodium amalgam and hot water. Thin layer chromatography of the ether soluble part of the product (yield, about 20%) showed the presence of a number of phenols and phenolic acids, most of whose structures bore obvious relationships to known microbial and chemical degradation products of lignin but some to the A ring of flavonoids. Humic acids can be extracted from peats and lignites but not from bituminous coals. However, oxidation of bituminous coals with aqueous performic acid generates in high yield (80 to 110% by weight) materials that closely resemble humic acids. The Burges reductive degradation was applied to humic acids extracted from some peats and lignites, and produced by oxidation of a number of bituminous coals. A number of identifications of products were made originally by gas chromatography with co-injection of standards. In this preliminary publication the experimental procedures are described and a sufficient selection of the data are given to show what was found by co-injection and later confirmed by mass spectrometry.
- OSTI ID:
- 6403342
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-770814-P4
- Journal Information:
- ACS Symp. Ser.; (United States), Journal Name: ACS Symp. Ser.; (United States) Vol. 71; ISSN ACSMC
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
400100* -- Analytical & Separations Chemistry
AROMATICS
BIODEGRADATION
BITUMINOUS COAL
BLACK COAL
BROWN COAL
CARBOHYDRATES
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHROMATOGRAPHY
COAL
DECOMPOSITION
ENERGY SOURCES
EXTRACTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HUMIC ACIDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
LIGNIN
LIGNITE
MACERALS
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
ORGANIC ACIDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
PEAT
PHENOLS
POLYSACCHARIDES
SACCHARIDES
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SPECTROSCOPY
STRUCTURAL CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
THIN-LAYER CHROMATOGRAPHY