An Australian brown coal (Yallourn coal, C; 64.2%, H; 4.9%, N; 0.7%, S; 0.3%, O
diff·; 29.9%, ash; 1.1%) was treated with potassium t-butoxide-H
2O in dioxane at 150°C for 24hr. As the result of carbonyl cleavage, the degradation product dissolves in THE/H
2O (8: 2 v/v), which corresponds to 40% of a starting material (THF/H
2O extraction residue, Fig.1). Due to the mild reaction, it is considered that the product remains its original structural nature except carbonyl and carboxyl groups.
Structural analysis was attempted by using nmr measurements;
1H-nmr and
13C-nmr (gated decoupling and INEPT as a solution, CP/MAS and CP/MAS/DD as a solid). The result indicates that the degradation (DP-TH) and extraction (SE-TH) products may have 3-4 substituted benzene nucleus with 1 naphthene or heterocyclic ring (Table 2). The INEPT spectra provide considerably detailed information of alkyl side chains in the coal (Fig.3); the presence of paraffinic, methyl, ethyl, isopropyl and butyl groups is suggested. It is noticiable that the tertiary carbon compared with bicyclo [2.2.2] octane type compound appeared at shielded field in the spectrum.
The structural parameters and the distribution of various carbon fractions estimated from the CP/MAS and CP/MAS/DD nmr show good agreement with those from the
1H-nmr and gated decoupling nmr (Table 3 and 4), despite of an appropriate amount of oxygen containing groups. Thus the structures of insoluble fraction (DP-R) and original coal are also reffered on the basis of the solid nmr data.
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