In Chinese coal petrographic nomenclature, one peculiar component is called “barkinite”, because its morphological features suggest an origin from bark tissue. In recent years, this Chinese term appeared in some international journals. However, many coal geologists do not accept the term “barkinite”.
The author of this paper has summarized and analysed the research progress relating to “barkinite” and bark coal. He points out some unreliable geochemical data and wrong explanation for the “barkinite” definition appeared in English-language papers about “barkinite”. However, some petrographic and geochemical characteristics of “barkinite” are indeed different than cutinite, suberinite and sporinite, especialy its morphological characteristics. Before to deciding whether it is a new maceral or not, the petrographic, geochemical and plant predecessor characteristics of this maceral component should be further studied.
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