Coal Science and Chemistry (Coal Science and Technology, 10)

In this book, specialists from a variety of disciplines address the vast and complex subject of the chemistry of coal. The book comprises two parts: the first consists of seven review articles on coal chemistry, including NMR, tandem mass spectrometry, physics, liquefaction, catalytic reactions, devolatilization and combustion. Of particular interest in this part, is the frequent inclusion in many of the contributions of the authors' own research results, hitherto unpublished elsewhere. Good examples of this are the work on magnetic susceptibility of coal (a new branch of coal physics) and the article on tandem mass spectrometry (a new branch of analytical chemistry of coal). The second part contains twelve original articles covering characterization and chemistry of coal, structure and depolymerization, analytical methods including gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, gas-liquid chromatography, size-exclusion chromatography and analysis of oxygen by fast-neutron activation. Physical chemistry and physical properties of coal are dealt with in articles on coal slurry electrolysis, oxidation, thermal decomposition, absorption and diffusion.