Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)
Using this technique, sufficient heat is used to break down the organic bonds of a complex species into smaller and stable molecules referred to as pyrolyzates. The pyrolyzates form and their relative intensities provide insight into the nature of the original material. This technique has a wide variety of applications for identifying organic composition of unknown samples by providing detailed information about the compounds present in a sample: molecular formula, structure, and eluting time.
Pyrolyzer: Frontier lab
GC: Agilent 8890 GC System
MS: Agilent 5977B GC/MSD
Sample form: Liquid, solid
Tests:
- Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA): Referred to as “road map”, this technique determines the thermal profile of the sample complexity when gases evolved during a customized programmed heating are transferred directly into the MS.
- Single-Shot Analysis: Simple and fast technique for flash-Pyrolysis.
- Double-Shot Analysis: Solid technique for identifying volatile fractions (residual solvents, additives, monomers, oligomers, etc.) as well as determination of polymeric fragments and the breakdown of the compounds seen in Desorption.
- Heart Cuts (HC): Powerful technique for discovering detailed composition information of each thermal zone obtained from EGA.