Mineral Composition and Graphitization Structure Characteristics of Contact Thermally Altered Coal

Abstract

Contact metamorphism in coal is usually characterized by a rapid, brief, and exotherm reaction that can change the geothermal gradient. In this process, coal adjacent to the intrusive body can form thermally altered coal-based graphite (TACG). In order to further study the structural changes of TACG at different distances from the intrusive body, four TACG samples were collected in the Zhuji coal mine in the Huainan Coalfield, North China, and their vitrinite reflectance and Raman spectra were measured using polarizing microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The results showed that: (1) affected by the temperature and stress of magmatic hydrothermal intrusion, the clay minerals in the coal seams appeared distributed in strips; the occurrence of ankerite and pyrite in the coal seams near the magmatic intrusions could be due to a late magmatic hydrothermal mineralization; (2) the Rmax − Rmin correlation for the TACG samples under study showed that thermal metamorphism was the main factor leading to the graphitization of the TACG samples, without an obvious pressure effect; (3) with the increase of the graphitization process, the D- and G-band showed some similar changes, specifically, their peak positions shifted to lower wave numbers, and the full width at half maximum (FWG and FWD) gradually decreased; the difference was that the intensity of the G-band increased, while that of the D-band decreased; (4) the graphitization degree of the TACG samples increased with the increase of the transverse size of the crystals, while the FWG and FWD values of the G- and D-band decreased; (5) in comparison to natural graphite, the TACG still presented structural defects.