57Fe Mössbauer Spectroscopic Investigation of Low-Iron Coals and Their Flyash

Trends in the speciation of iron and sulfur in high iron/sulfur coals are well-established. Less is known concerning iron and sulfur speciation in low sulfur coals such as those investigated in this study. Low sulfur coals and their flyash from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada and Atikokan, West Virginia, U.S.A. have been investigated by means of ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence. Virgin coals, containing approximately 0.1% Fe, exhibited Mössbauer spectra too low in intensity to characterize the phases present. The flyash exhibited well-resolved, simple doublets with ΔE_Q=1.16 mm s^?1 (Canada) and 1.26 mm s^?1 (U.S.A.) and isomer shift values (w.r.t. Fe) of 0.22 mm s^?1 and 0.23 mm s^?1, respectively, characteristic of Fe³⁺. The linewidths of ～0.80 mm s^?1 are unusually large. Treatment of the flyash with cold, hydrofluoric acid resulted in a sample that exhibited very little absorption in its ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectrum. This result, in conjunction with the linewidths, indicates that the Fe is present in the flyash mainly as a silicate glass.