The team has studied the relationship between the ability of the coals to be dissolved in crude anthracene oil and their composition. The coal samples taken from different deposits in Russia and Mongolia were characterized by different stages of metamorphism and tested by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance. The data of a correlation analysis enabled us to find out that an amount of aromatic structures in coal macromolecules provided the main influence on the thermal dissolution of the coals. The middle-rank coals had the highest rates of coal organic matter transfer to liquid products. The data showed that the dissolution process was accompanied by destruction of weak bonds among aliphatic groups. The amount of methylene groups in the aliphatic part of coal macromolecules had a direct impact on conversion of the coal organic matter into soluble products.

    Abstract
    1 Introduction
    2 Experiment procedure
        2.1 Coal samples analysis
        2.2 Thermal dissolution of coals in anthracene oil solvent
        2.3 Determination of the coal organic matter conversion
        2.4 Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (13C NMR)
    3 Results and discussion
        3.1 Characterization of the coal extracts
        3.2 The characterization of molecular structure of the coals and correlation analysis
    4 Conclusions
    Acknowledgements 
    References

• V. A. Safin(Siberian Federal University, Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology SB RAS)
• P. N. Kuznetsov(Siberian Federal University, Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology SB RAS)
• B. Avid(Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology)
• L. I. Kuznetsova(Institute of Chemistry and Chemical Technology SB RAS)
• Xing Fan(Shandong University of Science and Technology)
• Z. R. Ismagilov(Institute of Coal Chemistry and Material Science)