Organosulphur Compounds in Coals as Determined by Reaction with Raney Nickel and Microscale Pyrolysis Techniques; Quarterly report, January-March, 1996

Since the last report, we have concentrated on completing all the chemical degradation experimental work. This has involved the completion of a series of chemical degradation experiments using deuterium labeled sodium borohydride and deuterated methanol . The products of these desulphurization experiments have, as usual, been fractionated into aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons and NSO compounds. The aliphatic hydrocarbon fractions of each desulphurization experiment are currently being analysed by gas chromatography(GC) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry(GCMS). The object of the deuterium labelling experiments is to determine the relative abundance of thioether, triolane, and thiophene organic sulphur units cleaved in the different coal fractions( i.e. pre- extracted coal matrix, asphaltene and free polars from the maltenes)