Infrared estimates of aliphatic kerogen carbon in sedimentary rocks

An infrared routine has been developed to estimate the aliphatic portion of kerogen carbon in sedimentary rocks. The procedure does not require isolation of the organic matter and is based on a computer-assisted determination of global band areas in the region of the aliphatic carbon-hydrogen stretching vibrations around 2900cm⁻¹. From these integrated absorptions the amount of aliphatic carbon C_al (mg of aliphatic carbon per gram of solvent-extracted rock) is calculated by means of a calibration with model rocks. Carbonate overtones which interfere in the case of limestones are eliminated by comparison to a CaCO₃ standard.The method has been applied to rocks containing kerogens of different types and maturities at TOC levels of 0.5 to 12%. The aliphatic carbon concentrations range from 0.5 to 60mg·g⁻¹ and correlate reasonably well with the residual genetic potentials of the rocks as measured by S₂ values from Rock-Eval pyrolysis. The ratio S₂/C_al is found to decrease with burial depth reflecting a maturity enhanced conversion of aliphatic carbon to fixed aromatic carbon under Rock-Eval conditions.