THE USE OF STABLE SULFUR ISOTOPE RATIO ANALYSIS TO ASSESS SELECTIVITYOF CHEMICAL-ANALYSES AND EXTRACTIONS OF FORMS OF SULFUR IN COAL

Natural variation in the abundance of sulfur isotopes has been used to characterize the different forms of sulfur in four Illinois basin coa ls. Isotopic determinations have been made on the sulfur yields from v arious extraction procedures. These enable the extent to which extract ions mix sulfur from different forms to be estimated. The results show that the standard ASTM methods routinely used may not be selective fo r the chemical forms of sulfur they purpot to analyse.