Why Pyrolysis

Pyrolysis, coupled with GC (Py-GC), GC/MS (Py-GC/MS), Direct MS or FT-IR, permits the analysis of samples which were previously unsuitable for analysis without lengthy extractions or derivatizations.

What is Pyrolysis?

Pyrolysis is simply the breaking apart of large complex molecules into smaller, more analytically useful fragments by the application of heat.

When a Mass Spectrometer shatters compounds using electron impact, the compound is fragmented in a reproducible way, the ions are separated by the MS and the result is a spectrum which is both qualitative and quantitative. Pyrolysis works in much the same way. By applying heat to a sample that is greater than the energy of specific bonds, the molecule will fragment in a reproducible way. The fragments are then separated by the analytical column to produce the chromatogram (pyrogram) which contains both qualitative and quantitative information. The number of peaks, the resolution by capillary GC, and the relative intensities of the peaks permit discrimination among many similar formulations, making pyrolysis a powerful tool in the identification of unknown samples.