Characterization of coal and charcoal by alpha-particle and gamma-ray spectrometry

Although coal and charcoal have similar physical and chemical characteristics, there are several crystallographic procedures used to distinguish and characterize them. But if the matrix is crushed, there is no standard procedure to distinguish coal from charcoal. In this work, a procedure to characterize coal and charcoal samples based on the radioactive content is proposed. The first assay is by gamma-ray spectrometry, which allows a part of the radioactive content to be determined rapidly and non-destructively. Then, alpha-particle spectrometry is applied to assay the content of those radionuclides which are difficult to determine precisely by gamma-ray spectrometry. This second technique requires prior chemical purification of the carbon sample in order to separate the corresponding radionuclides of interest.