Assisted cleavage carboxyl groups

Pyrolysis with in situ methylation in the presence of TMAH is now commonly applied for the structural investigation of HS. It has been reported, however, that TMAH not only methylates polar pyrolysate but also assists in bond cleavage. For example, TMAH was found as effective at 300°C as at 700°C for the production of some volatile products from HS, indicating that pyrolysis occurs with equal effectiveness at subpyrolysis temperature of 300°C. It is believed that TMAH pyrolysis is actually a thermally assisted chemolysis rather than pure pyrolysis and it can cause hydrolytic ester and ether bond cleavage even at lower temperature, resulting in some unwanted side reactions, e.g., artificial formation of carboxylic groups from aldehydes. Therefore, TMAH thermochemolysis at low temperature, e.g., 300°C has been proposed. This technique offers several advantages over classical flash pyrolysis or preparative pyrolysis apparatus " ... 

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