Abstract

Integrated elemental, spectroscopic (infrared spectroscopy and X-ray absorption near-edge structure), and gas intrusion (helium pycnometry and nitrogen adsorption) analyses are used to characterize the bulk chemical, molecular, and physical microstructures of kerogen spanning a thermal maturity transect (vitrinite reflectance, Ro, from 0.5% to 2.6%) across the Woodford Shale of the Anadarko Basin, Oklahoma. The integration takes advantage of novel procedures to prepare kerogen isolates that preserve both the chemical and physical properties of the organic matter in the bulk shale. The Woodford kerogens follow the expected trends in H/C and O/C coordinates during thermal maturation for type II kerogen. Infrared spectra show that loss of hydrogen from kerogen is related to cracking of hydrogen-rich aliphatic (alkyl) carbon structures from aromatic carbons. Within the range of Ro values < 1.5%, peripheral aromatic carbons remain highly substituted with alkyl (methyl and methylene) and probably heteroatom fun...

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