Few comparisons have been made between low-aromaticity marine and lacustrine oil shales and their kerogens, because the reliability of structural analyses has been limited by a reliance on only one method of kerogen isolation, HCl-HF. Therefore, a detailed analysis by ¹³C NMR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was made for Attrat marine oil shale (Jordan) and Colorado (Green River) lacustrine oil shale (USA) and their NaOH-HCl kerogens. Some differences between oil shales and their kerogens were noted, but many structural features were considered to be true characteristics of the organic matter. The results emphasise the importance of comparing the analyses of kerogens isolated by different methods to ensure that features of the organic matter are not an artefact of the method of kerogen isolation. For both oil shales, the predominantly aliphatic character of the organic part was confirmed and the long average chain length of the aliphatic hydrocarbons was established. All shales and their kerogens showed a small cluster size for the aromatic rings. The elemental analysis obtained by XPS, compared with the bulk elemental analysis, indicated major differences between the near-surface region sampled by XPS and the bulk. The organic S was determined to be aliphatic and aromatic S with possibly small amounts of sulfoxide. Most of the N was pyrrolic with smaller amounts in pyridinic or quaternary form. Nearly all of the surface organic C in both kerogens was bonded to C and H. Two major forms of organic O were distinguishable. A good correlation between the proportion of aliphatic S and pyrolysis reactivity is suggested.

低芳香性海洋和湖相油页岩及其干酪根之间很少进行比较，因为结构分析的可靠性受到仅依靠一种干酪根分离方法HCl-HF的限制。因此，详细分析了¹³对Attrat海洋油页岩（约旦）和科罗拉多州（绿河）湖相油页岩（美国）及其NaOH-HCl干酪根进行了C NMR和X射线光电子能谱分析（XPS）。注意到了油页岩及其干酪根之间的一些差异，但许多结构特征被认为是有机质的真实特征。结果强调了比较通过不同方法分离出的干酪根的分析的重要性，以确保有机物的特征不是分离干酪根的方法的产物。对于两种油页岩，已确认有机部分的主要脂族特性，并确定了脂族烃的长平均链长。所有页岩及其干酪根均显示出较小的芳香环簇尺寸。XPS获得的元素分析，与散装元素分析相比，表明XPS采样的近表面区域与散装之间存在主要差异。经测定，有机物S是具有少量亚砜的脂族和芳族S。氮的大部分是吡咯基的，少量为吡啶基或季铵盐形式。两种干酪根中几乎所有的表面有机碳都与C和H结合。有机O的两种主要形式是可区分的。建议脂肪族S的比例与热解反应性之间具有良好的相关性。两种干酪根中几乎所有的表面有机碳都与C和H结合。有机O的两种主要形式是可区分的。建议脂肪族S的比例与热解反应性之间具有良好的相关性。两种干酪根中几乎所有的表面有机碳都与C和H结合。有机O的两种主要形式是可区分的。建议脂肪族S的比例与热解反应性之间具有良好的相关性。