The development of aromatic cluster size in heat-treated coals by heating above 500
C isdiscussed. Heat treatment of coal was performed at 500, 600, and 700
C to obtain semicokesamples. The temperature range was above the resolidification temperature of the coal samples.For comparison, a strongly coking coal, Australian Goonyella coal, and a slightly coking coal,Chinese Enshu coal, were used as the sample coals. Analysis of the virgin coals and the semicokesamples with solid-state
13C NMR indicated that the strongly coking coal tended to develop thearomatic ring size to a greater degree than the slightly coking coal as the heat-treatmenttemperature increased. To examine this tendency, a ruthenium ion catalyzed oxidation reactionwas applied to the semicoke samples to obtain information concerning the distribution of thearomatic ring size. The products from this reaction also implied that the semicoke samplesobtained from the strongly coking coal had an aromatic ring of larger size on average. A schematicrepresentation of the behavior of molecules in the two coal samples during heating was established.