Simultaneous oxygen,carbon, nitrogen,sulfur and silicon determination in coal by proton induced gamma-ray analysis

The technique of gamma-ray analysis of light elements (GRALE) is extended to measure the concentration of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and silicon in coal samples. The composition of the sample is determined by analyzing the spectrum of gamma rays emitted following inelastic scattering of protons bombarding the target. A large volume lithium drifted germanium detector is used as a gamma-ray detector in this work. Coal samples are irradiated with 9.5 MeV protons in a helium atmosphere for 1000 sec. Results with standard coal samples indicate that the method has an accuracy of ∼5% of the concentration of each element and a precision of ∼4% for elements constituting at least 1% of the coal by weight.