History and scope of analytical pyrolysis

Two years after the introduction of GC by James and Martin in 1952, Davison et al. reported the first work on off-line Py-GC of polymers. These workers demonstrated that Py-GC was quite effective for the characterization of polymeric materials. In 1959, online Py-GC systems and their applications to polymer analysis were reported independently by three research groups Lehrle and Robb, RadeU and Stmtz, and Martin. These achievements triggered a boom in Py-GC. Moreover, the dissemination of GC—MS after 1965 strongly accelerated the development of Py-GC. In 1966, Simon and co-workers reported the first directly coupled Py-GC/MS system using a rapid scanning MS. 

Pyrolysis-GC/MS Data Book of Synthetic Polymers/Tsuge 

During such developments in analytical pyrolysis, a number of books and commentaries have been released (most of these are listed in Appendix). In recent years, comprehensive monographs of analytical pyrolysis by Moldoveanu were published by focusing on natural and synthetic polymers, respectively. These books systematically discuss the latest trends in theory and techniques in analytical pyrolysis with featuring the representative apphcations. On the other hand, standardization and rehable compilation of 

Roughly speaking among the whole molecules (100%), about 30% of them could be treated with GC, including those formed through derivatization to enhance volatility or thermal stabihty, while LC can be apphed about 85% of them provided that some proper solvents can he found even for polymers. However, the insoluble substances between the ranges above B cannot be treated by any chromatographic techniques. 

Three-dimensional polymeric materials, coal, lignin, soil, and most of biomass would be included in these category substances. 

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In this chapter, the history and scope of analytical pyrolysis are presented first, and then the instrumental and methodological aspects of Py-GC/MS are briefly discussed. Then, some recent typical applications of Py-GC/MS to the structural characterization of various pol5mieric materials will be discussed in detail. 

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