Chapter 51 - Fingerprinting Solid Coals Using Pulse and Multiple Pulse Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Abstract

While nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has been an enormously useful tool for analyses of liquid species, use for characterization of fossil fuels in the solid state has been severely limited. This chapter presents techniques that have been used for quantitative and qualitative analysis of solid coals via relaxation measurements, conventional magnetic resonance, and recently developed transient techniques in NMR. Almost every atomic specie conceived would be important in the determination determining if coal structure and chemistry have an NMR active nuclear isotope. In addition, the nuclear magnetic resonance phenomenon is sensitive to a broad range of interactions. The use of NMR to fingerprint solid coals (and liquid coal products) would, therefore, appear to be limited only by the imagination. It is clear that the use of NMR to probe the solid state and to probe unusual situations in liquids such as quadrupolar broadened lines is in a period of exciting development.