Abstract
IN recent years electrolytic methods have been used in the reduction and structural elucidation of coal1–2. The usefulness of these methods is limited by the fact that the benzene ring (that is, the isolated benzene ring as in benzene or tetralin), which may represent a large portion of the coal structure, has not previously been reduced electrolytically. Work here has shown that reduction of benzene can be achieved by electrolysis in ethylenediamine saturated with lithium chloride3. The same method has now been successfully applied to the reduction of a high-rank coal and has resulted in the addition of 44 hydrogens per 100 carbon atoms. The best electrochemical reduction achieved2 prior to this was carried out in dimethylformamide and amounted to the addition of 14 hydrogens.
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MARKBY, R., STERNBERG, H. & WENDER, I. Extensive Reduction of Coal by a New Electrochemical Method. Nature 199, 997 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/199997a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/199997a0
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