Spectroscopic study of coal structure and reactivity

The aim of this project is to perform quantitative analysis of the Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra of coals and coal extracts. The major difficulty encountered in the analysis of the FT-IR spectra of coals is the complexity of the bands, which consist of many closely overlapped peaks. Two techniques that are commonly used for the quantitative analysis of complex FT-IR spectra are deconvolution and curve-fitting. Deconvolution is a mathematical technique that narrows the speaks in a spectrum, thereby improving the effective resolution. Curve-fitting optimizes a set of ban parameters, using a least squares criterion, to simulate the true spectrum. We have recently completed work on optimizing the combination of these two techniques with the aim of applying this to the spectra of coals and coal extracts. Two types of deconvolution were investigated in this context: Fourier self-deconvolution (FSD) and maximum likelihood restoration (MLR). It was concluded that for noisy spectra MLR gave superior results. 3 refs., 7 figs

Spectroscopic study of coal structure and reactivity

Work done during this period (December 15, 1989 to March 14, 1990) covered two of the three primary areas of study of this project. The first involved the continuing development a of step-scanning interferometer for the photoacoustic depth-profiling of materials whose composition varies in the spatial region between 5 and 50 {mu}m from its surface. The second covered the initial construction of an on-line interface between a supercritical fluid chromatograph (SFC) and a Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrometer for monitoring the composition of coal extracts. 5 refs., 8 figs