Thereisadearthofinformationaboutthedistributionoftraceelementsinkerogenfromshalerocksdespiteseveralreportsontraceelementcompositioninmanyshalesamples.Inthisstudy,traceelementsinshalerocksandtheirresidualkerogensweredeterminedbyinductivelycoupledplasma–massspectrometry.Theresultsfromthisstudyshowredox-sensitiveelementsrelativelyconcentratedinthekerogensascomparedtotheshales.Thismaybeprimarilyduetotheadsorptionandcomplexationabilityofkerogen,whichenablesenrichmentinNi,Co,Cu,andZn.Fortherareearthelements(REEs),distinctdistributioncharacteristicswereobservedforshalesdominatedbyterrigenousmineralsandtheirkerogencounterparts.However,shaleswithlessinputofterrigenousmineralsshowedsimilarREEdistributionpatternstotheirresidualkerogen.ItisspeculatedthatthedistributionpatternsoftheREEsinshalesandkerogensmaybesourcerelated.
