a physical combination of coal and the chemical change agent two chemical change agents were used in the test the first was syntex ld and the second was syntex md the raw coal sample was meticulously mixed and riffed to garner a smaller sample for analysis the raw coal was reduced in particle size using a mortar and pestle through a sixty mesh screen the grinding process was performed at a minimal pace and care was taken to clean all instruments in order to avoid a cross contamination of samples the same process was used on the synthetic fuel mixture during the test the raw coal chemical change agent and synthetic fuel spectra were obtained with a perkin elmer spectrum one ftir spectrometer thirty two scans of each sample comprised an average to obtain final spectra listed below fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is useful for determining chemical bonds within substances alterations in the spectra of raw coal and the synthetic fuel indicate a change in the chemical bonds at these wavelengths thus a greater or lesser number of certain bonds at a wavelength will lead to a change in the spectra involved the bonds most often seen pertaining to raw coal and the synthetic fuel product are 1 carbon carbon bonds basic organic molecules are constructed of carbon carbon bonds these bonds may be either aromatic or aliphatic aromatic carbon atoms are.