Action of Permanganate on Coal

THE reaction of coal with permanganate has often been studied in the past for probing into the constitution of coal, or for the isolation of aromatic and heterocyclic poly-carboxylic acids with the object of preparing simple organic chemicals 1 . However, the mechanism of the breakdown of coal into simpler products is still not fully understood. Recently, in the course of preliminary work on this reaction, we have observed an effect which may be of significance in this regard, especially in relation to the structural pattern of coal.