Ju Yiwen

13 C NMR spectra of tectonic coals and the effects of stress on structural components

High-resolution 13 C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra of different kinds of tectonic coals were obtained using the NMR (CP/MAS+TOSS) method. On the basis of this, after simulation synthesis and division of spectra, the relative contents of carbon functional groups were calculated. Combined with results of Ro, max, XRD testing and element analysis, stress effects on the composition of macromolecular structures in tectonic coals were studied further. The results showed that Ro, max was not only the important index for describing coal rank, but was also effective for estimating the stress effect of tectonic coals. Under tectonic stress acion, Ro, max was the most direct indicator of the coal structure and chemical components. Changes in the stacking Lc of the coal basic structure unit (BSU) and La/Lc parameters could distinguish the temperature and stress effects on metamorphic-deformed environments, and relected the degree of structural deformation. Therefore, on the whole, Lc and La/Lc can be used to index of the degree of structural deformation of tectonic coals. In different metamorphic and deformed environments, different kinds of tectonic coals are formed under structural stress. The changes in characteristics of the macromolecular structure and chemical composition are such that as the increase in structural deformation becomes stronger, from the brittle deformation coal to ductile deformation coal, the ratio of width at the half height of the aromatic carbon and aliphatic carbon peaks (Hfa/Hfal) was increased. As carbon aromaticity was raised further, carbon aliphaticity reduced obviously and different compositions of macromolecular structure appeared as a jump and wave pattern except for in wrinkle structure coal, which might result chiefly from stress effects on the macromolecular structure of different kinds of tectonic coals. The macro-moecular changes of wrinkle structure coal are reflected mainly on physical structure. In the metamorphic and deformed environments of the middle and high rank coals, different kinds of tectonic coals, when compared with the metamorphic and deformed environments of low rank coal, have a greater change in Hfa/Hfal, carbon aromaticity, carbon aliphaticity and a different composition of macromolecular structure. So these parameters can be used to estimate in-creases of coal rank, and to a certain degree, the stress effects on structural components of tectonic coals.

Response of Macromolecular Structure to Deformation in Tectonically Deformed Coal

The structural evolution of tectonically deformed coals (TDC) with different deformational mechanisms and different deformational intensities are investigated in depth through X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis on 31 samples of different metamorphic grades (Ro, max: 0.7%–3.1%) collected from the Huaibei coalfield. The results indicated that there are different evolution characteristics between the ductile and brittle deformational coals with increasing of metamorphism and deformation. On the one hand, with the increase of metamorphism, the atomic plane spacing (d002) is decreasing at step velocity, the stacking of the BSU layer (Lc) is increasing at first and then decreasing, but the extension of the BSU layer (La) and the ratio of La/Lc are decreasing initially and then increasing. On the other hand, for the brittle deformational coal, d002 is increasing initially and then decreasing, which causes an inversion of the variation of Lc and La under the lower-middle or higher-middle metamorphism grade when the deformational intensity was increasing. In contrast, in the ductile deformational coals, d002 decreased initially and then increased, and the value of Lc decreased with the increase of deformational intensity. But the value of La increased under the lower-middle metamorphism grade and increased at first and then decreased under the higher-middle metamorphism grade. We conclude that the degradation and polycondensation of TDC macromolecular structure can be obviously impacted during the ductile deformational process, because the increase and accumulation of unit dislocation perhaps transforms the stress into strain energy. Meanwhile, the brittle deformation can transform the stress into fractional heat energy, and promote the metamorphism and degradation as well. It can be concluded that deformation is more important than metamorphism to the differential evolution of the ductile and brittle deformational coals.