Separation of petroleum ether extracted residue of low temperature coal tar by chromatography column and structural feature of fractions by TG-FTIR and PY-GC/MS

Abstract The petroleum ether extracted residue (PCT) of the low temperature coal tar were separated and analyzed in this study. PCT was stepwise separated into toluene eluent (TS), ethanol eluent (EAS), methanol eluent (MAS), tetrahydrofuran eluent (THFS) and residue (IS) by chromatography column (CC) with Al 2 O 3 . Their composition and structure feature were confirmed by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), Uv-fluorescence, thermogravimetric analyzer coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (TG-FTIR), pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (PY-GC/MS) and Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR). The results show that the yields of TS, EAS, MAS, THFS are 1.70 wt%, 33.22 wt%, 18.97 wt% and 1.41 wt%, respectively. The order of their molecular weights from small to large is as follows: MAS