Spectro-Mechanical Characterizations of Kerogen Heterogeneity and Mechanical Properties of Source Rocks at 6 nm Spatial Resolution

In situmeasurements of the chemical compositions and mechanical properties of kerogen help understand the formation, transformation, and utilization of organic matter in oil shale source rocks. However, the optical diffraction limit prevents attainment of nanoscale resolution using conventional spectroscopy and microscopy. Here, we developed peak force infrared (PFIR) microscopy for multimodal characterization of kerogen in organic shales. PFIR...