Abstract
Information on the change of oxygen functional groups in the oxidizing coal is important to coal utilization particularly for lower rank coal which has high oxygen content. In this work, effect of oxidation on the structure properties and calorific values of lignites was investigated by using two different Turkish lignites. Lignite samples were oxidized by air circulation and in aqueous media, solution of hydrogen peroxide (5%H2O2). FT-i.r. technique was applied to the original and oxidized lignite samples to investigate functional group analyses. The results indicated that oxidation reaction caused a decrease in the aliphatic C-H stretching bands, whereas it lead to a significant increase in the C=O, C-O, and-OH stretching absorption bands.