High mass material (>10 4 daltons) in a coal liquefaction extract, by laser‐desorption mass spectrometry

The use of a laser‐desorption mass spectrometer to examine a coal liquefaction extract known to contain high‐molecular‐mass material (from size‐exclusion chromatography) has shown the presence of components of molecular mass in excess of 10 4 Da for the first time. The molecules detected differ from each other in molecular mass by a few hundred or a few thousand Da. These preliminary results indicate that the basic coal‐structure molecules probably consist of aromatic clusters on a chin, in reasonable agreement with current theories of coal structure.