Aliphatic components of coal. Quarterly report, March-June 1980

Liquefaction of coal involves thermolysis of benzyl-oxygen and/or benzyl-benzyl bonds as the first step in the depolymerization. This view derives from NMR studies, studies with model compounds, and oxidative degradations with Na/sub 2/Cr/sub 2/O/sub 7/ and CF/sub 3/CO/sub 3/H/sub 2/. The best method for determining the amount of arylmethyl groups in coals is from the yield of acetic acid formed in oxidative degradation with CF/sub 3/CO/sub 3/H-H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/. The following observations and interpretations are made: a sharp increase in arylmethyl accompanies liquefaction in all five coals and in two coals studied earlier. This increase is the result of thermal cleavage to benzyl radicals and abstraction of hydrogen atoms by the benzyl radicals to form arylmethyl. All five coals give about the same percentage increase in arylmethyl after 90 mins of solvent refining, but not after 3 mins. This indicates that benzyl radicals form from more than one type of structure. Based on studies of model compounds, it is attractive to ascribe arylmethyl formation in 3 mins to cleavage of benzyl ethers and slower cleavage to bibenzyl structures. It might have been expected that the more arylmethyl, the more cleavage, and the more SRC. In fact the opposite is found. The conflict would be resolved if coal liquefaction depended more on certain critical cleavages and the conversion of a 3-dimensional polymer to a 1-dimensional polymer than on the total amount of cleavage and the extent of depolymerization. The amount of arylmethyl in the residue (3 min) is about the same as in the original coal. This indicates that arylmethyls do not play any role in liquefaction as expected. No higher homologs of acetic acid were observed indicating the absence of arylalkyls above methyl

Propene adsorption and reaction on zeolites and pillared clays

Comparative IR and UV-Vis spectroscopic studies of propene adsorption and reaction on H-mordenite, dealuminated H-mordenite, dealuminated mazzite, montmorillonite and Al~3-pillared montmorillonite have been carried out. On all systems propene is first transformed into polymeric species (C.H2.+~+). On HMOR (both as such and dealuminated), allylic carbocations are successively produced by loss of H 2, the monoenic species (C.H2~., +) being formed at room temperature and the dienic (C,H2..3 § and trienic (C.Hz,_s +) species at higher temperatures. These species are not observed on the other systems, although they are presumably formed as unstable intermediates. In fact, on all the zeolites studied here two cyclic penta-atomic and hexa-atomic allylic carbocations have been observed for the first time. On all systems, the final products of reaction are polyaromatic species which, on the basis of their reaction with NH 3 still exhibit unsaturated carbocation behaviour. The activity of the various samples depends on their pore dimensions and on the nature of acidic sites involved: the larger the available pore space, the more branched is the polymer and the more difficult it is to observe allylic carbocations. Evidence is provided for a Bronsted-induced mechanism

Measuring the spillover effects of public capital: a bi-regional structural vector autoregressive analysis

Public Capital, Shocks, Spillovers, VAR, Spain, C32, E62, H54, R53,