Supercritical gas extracts from low-quality coals: on the search of new precursors for carbon materials

This paper studies the chemical composition of several supercritical gas (SCG) extracts and its influence on the thermal behaviour under carbonisation conditions. The extracts were obtained from a Spanish lignite (Mequinenza), a low-quality coal from the point of view of energy applications. The lignite was treated with toluene, ethanol (EtOH) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) as solvents under different supercritical temperature and pressure conditions. The extracts display high aliphatic nature and enhanced concentrations of oxygen functional groups, aided by the contribution of hydrogenation and oxygen incorporation reactions occurring in the SCG extraction with EtOH and THF. Thiophenic compounds are also present in great concentrations derived from the exceptionally high organic sulphur content of the parent coal. The carbonisation of the extracts renders anisotropic material with fine mosaic texture, as a consequence of the significant thermal reactivity inferred by the aliphatic and oxygenated groups. The size of the mosaic increases with the temperature of the SCG extraction and varies with the supercritical solvent in the order: toluene<EtOH<THF.