“…The molecular structures of these carboxylic acids can be determined by GC/MS after esterification with different methods (Murata et al, ; Yao et al, ; Pan et al, ; Lv et al, ; Liu et al, ). Coal mild oxidation mainly includes ruthenium ion‐catalyzed oxidation (RICO) (Stock & Wang, , ; Murata et al, , ; Artok et al, ; Kidena et al, ; Huang et al, ; Yao et al, ; Liu et al, ; Wang et al, , ; Lv et al, ), oxidation in H 2 O 2 aqueous solution (Miura et al, ; Mae, Shindo, & Miura, ; Liu et al, , ; Pan et al, ; Doskočil et al, ; Tahmasebi et al, ), and oxidation in NaOCl aqueous solution (Yao et al, ; Liu et al, ,; Wang et al, ), according to different oxidants.…”