“…The molecular structures of these carboxylic acids can be determined by GC/MS after esterification with different methods (Murata et al, 2001;Yao et al, 2010;Pan et al, 2013;Lv et al, 2014;Liu et al, 2015b). Coal mild oxidation mainly includes ruthenium ion-catalyzed oxidation (RICO) (Stock & Wang, 1985, 1986Murata et al, 1994Murata et al, , 2001Artok et al, 1998;Kidena et al, 2004;Huang et al, 2008;Yao et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2013b;Wang et al, 2013cWang et al, , 2015bLv et al, 2014), oxidation in H 2 O 2 aqueous solution (Miura et al, 1996;Mae, Shindo, & Miura, 2001;Liu et al, 2013bLiu et al, , 2015bPan et al, 2013;Dosko cil et al, 2014;Tahmasebi et al, 2015), and oxidation in NaOCl aqueous solution (Yao et al, 2010;Liu et al, 2013b,c;Wang et al, 2014b), according to different oxidants.…”