This work focuses on the interaction of coal with three different ionic liquids (ILs) and mixed solvent for analysing the oxidising effect on Indian coal. The ILs; 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium methyl carbonate [BMPYR][CH3CO3], 1 butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [BMIM][PF6], and 1-butyl-4-methylpyridinium tetrafluoroborate [BMPY][BF4] were subsequently used for dissolution studies. The thermogravimetric analysis result shows that the mass loss was less for [BMPYR] [CH3CO3] and mixed solvent ([BMPYR][CH3CO3] + pyridine) pre-treated coal as compared to other. Hence the IL has the largest ability to fractionate the more active oxygen containing functional groups present in the coal. The thermal degradation study shows that the thermal stability of mixed solvent and IL-pre-treated coal provides a temperature of above ~630°C, which is a quite high as compared to raw coal. The IL-pre-treated coal also requires lesser energy (low activation energy) during gasification processes which will be beneficial from an economic point of view. [Received: October 19, 2017; Accepted: March 11, 2018]