Characterization of Oil Shale by Ftir Spectroscopy

The o p t i c a l advantages and d a t a handl ing c a p a b i l i t i e s of F o u r i e r transform inf r a r e d (FT-IR) ins t ruments have l e d t o a resurgence of t h e use of i n f r a r e d spec t roscopy f o r t h e c h a r a c t e r i z a t i o n of energy r e l a t e d m a t e r i a l s . Most of t h e work t h a t has so f a r been r e p o r t e d has involved t h e c h a r a c t e r i z a t i o n of c o a l . Methods f o r t h e q u a n t i t a t i v e de te rmina t ion of minera l matter (1-5) and v a r i o u s s t u d i e s of the organiccomponents of c o a l (6-13) have been publ i shed . The only paper ( t o our knowledge) concerning t h e a p p l i c a t i o n of FT-IR t o t h e s tudy of s h a l e w a s repor ted by Solomon and Miknis (14 ) . These a u t h o r s cons idered t h e a n a l y s i s of b o t h t h e minera l and organic components. However, theyrepor ted a number of problems wi th the minera logica l a n a l y s i s of c e r t a i n s h a l e s , p a r t i c u l a r l y t h e de te rmina t ion of t h e car bonates p r e s e n t i n samples from Colorado. The a n a l y s i s of t h e o r g a n i c component was confined t o t h e a l i p h a t i c C-H s t r e t c h i n g reg ion of t h e spectrum n e a r 2900 cm-l. Unf o r t u n a t e l y , t h e s e bands a r e o f t e n a l l t h a t is d e t e c t a b l e of t h e o r g a n i c component i n t h e i n f r a r e d s p e c t r a of s h a l e s .