Solvent swelling of dictyonema oil shale

The present work investigates volumetric swelling of Estonian Dictyonema oil shale, as a representative of black shales of the Baltoscandian basin, in 22 solvents. This study shows that kerogen of Dictyonema oil shale is characterized by a low degree of swelling indicating a highly cross-linked structure. The relatively high swellability in high Guttmann’s electron donor number solvents indicates the importance of non-covalent cross-links, such as hydrogen bonding, in swelling process and raises concern regarding the use of regular solution-based approaches. Despite this, the solubility parameter, a fundamental thermodynamic property, was tentatively determined from swelling data.