Uses and perspectives of Mossbauer spectroscopic studies of iron minerals in coal

The processes involved in the utilization of coal are affected by the miner als contained in it. Due to the presence of iron as a major constituent of coal mineral matter, and to the fact that the iron minerals, especially pyr ite, and their transformation products play an important role in coal uses, Fe-57-Mossbauer spectroscopy appears as an attractive tool in coal researc h. Mossbauer studies related to the characterization of iron phases, coal o xidation and quantitative determination of pyritic sulphur are discussed in this work.