Multistep extraction of coal

Abstract Unlike many natural and synthesized polymers, coal is a mixture of polyfunctional high-molecular-mass material. The usually observed limited extractability of coal is attributed to the disregard of various relatively strong intra- and intermolecular interactions and their co-operativity. Due to the polyfunctionality, ionic, charge-transfer and so-called π-π interactions are present, and their abundances are highly rank-dependent. Such relatively strong interactions are not completely solvated in a single step with any solvent. In this paper, multistep extraction was studied to solvate these interactions. Pyridine was mostly used after treatments to disrupt these interactions without breaking covalent bonds. Much larger pyridine extractability was obtained compared to a single step extraction. As solubilization or extraction is the first step to characterize coal, caution is advised against the limited extractability obtained by conventional procedures.