Pyrolysis, quantitation

Chemical Analysis. The presence of siUcones in a sample can be ascertained quaUtatively by burning a small amount of the sample on the tip of a spatula. SiUcones bum with a characteristic sparkly flame and emit a white sooty smoke on combustion. A white ashen residue is often deposited as well. If this residue dissolves and becomes volatile when heated with hydrofluoric acid, it is most likely a siUceous residue (437). Quantitative measurement of total sihcon in a sample is often accompHshed indirectly, by converting the species to siUca or siUcate, followed by deterrnination of the heteropoly blue sihcomolybdate, which absorbs at 800 nm, using atomic spectroscopy or uv spectroscopy (438—443). Pyrolysis gc followed by mass spectroscopic detection of the pyrolysate is a particularly sensitive tool for identifying siUcones (442,443). This technique rehes on the pyrolytic conversion of siUcones to cycHcs, predominantly to [541-05-9] which is readily detected and quantified (eq. 37). 

The most reliable method of preparing benzofuroxans is by decomposition of o-nitrophenyl azides. Decomposition can be achieved by irradiation, or more usually by pyrolysis temperatures between 100° and 1.50° are commonly used. Refluxing in glacial acetic acid is the recommended procedure for 4- or 5-sub-stituted 2-nitrophenyl azides, but with 3- or 6-substituted compounds higher boiling solvents are usually necessary. Quantitative studies on the reaction rate have been made, and a cyclic transition state invoked, an argument which has been used to account for the greater difficulty of decomposition of the 6-substituted 2-nitrophenyl azides. Substituent effects on the reaction rate have also been correlated with Hammett a constants, ... 

Kinetic studies of pyrolysis of azides, giving oxadiazole A-oxides in near-quantitative yields, showed that the 5-azido-6-nitroquinoline pyrolyzed in acetic acid 27.6 times faster than did 5-azidoquinolines, because of the -M effect of the group adjacent to the azide group (85AJC1045). 

Determination of oxygen. The sample is weighed into a silver container which has been solvent-washed, dried at 400 °C and kept in a closed container to avoid oxidation. It is dropped into a reactor heated at 1060 °C, quantitative conversion of oxygen to carbon monoxide being achieved by a layer of nickel-coated carbon (see Note). The pyrolysis gases then flow into the chromatographic column (1 m long) of molecular sieves (5 x 10-8 cm) heated at 100 °C the CO is separated from N2, CH4, and H2, and is measured by a thermal conductivity detector. 

The extent of short-chain branching in PE may be quantitatively determined by a variety of techniques including IR. 1 pyrolysis Ct., 7" and y-radiolysis."84 The most definitive information comes from l3C NMR studies.2S5"2 0 The typical... 

Table 2.7 lists techniques used to characterise carbon-blacks. Analysis of CB in rubber vulcanisates requires recovery of CB by digestion of the matrix followed by filtration, or by nonoxidative pyrolysis. Dispersion of CB within rubber products is usually assessed by the Cabot dispersion test, or by means of TEM. Kruse [46] has reviewed rubber microscopy, including the determination of the microstructure of CB in rubber compounds and vulcanisates and their qualitative and quantitative determination. Analysis of free CB features measurements of (i) particulate and aggregate size (SEM, TEM, XRD, AFM, STM) (ii) total surface area according to the BET method (ISO 4652), iodine adsorption (ISO 1304) or cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) adsorption (ASTM D 3765) and (iii) external surface area, according to the dibutylphthalate (DBP) test (ASTM D 2414). TGA is an excellent technique for the quantification of CB in rubbers. However, it is very limited in being able to distinguish the different types of... 

Nonvolatile compounds cannot be analysed unless pyrolysis or derivatisation converts them to a condition amenable to GC. Derivatisation GC (or LC) has been used for several components such as erucamide (imidi-sation for volatility), fatty amines (aromatic amidation for UV detectability), and polyethylene oxides (esterification for both volatility and detectability) [178]. The surface concentration of erucamide on extruded LLDPE films was determined quantitatively by surface washings with ether, followed by evaporation, dissolution... 

In direct insertion techniques, reproducibility is the main obstacle in developing a reliable analytical technique. One of the many variables to take into account is sample shape. A compact sample with minimal surface area is ideal [64]. Direct mass-spectrometric characterisation in the direct insertion probe is not very quantitative, and, even under optimised conditions, mass discrimination in the analysis of polydisperse polymers and specific oligomer discrimination may occur. For nonvolatile additives that do not evaporate up to 350 °C, direct quantitative analysis by thermal desorption is not possible (e.g. Hostanox 03, MW 794). Good quantitation is also prevented by contamination of the ion source by pyrolysis products of the polymeric matrix. For polymer-based calibration standards, the homogeneity of the samples is of great importance. Hyphenated techniques such as LC-ESI-ToFMS and LC-MALDI-ToFMS have been developed for polymer analyses in which the reliable quantitative features of LC are combined with the identification power and structure analysis of MS. 

GC-MS and GC-AED techniques were used for the direct analysis of used tyre vacuum pyrolysis oil [255]. Antioxidants and antiwear additives (0.25-5 wt% DODPA, a-NPA, TCPs, TPP, IPPs) in lubricating synthetic oils, essentially esters of branched-chain alcohols such as pentaerythritol, neopentylglycol and trimethylolpropane, were determined by means of GC-SIM-MS using diphenylamine (DPA) as an internal standard [256] similarly, TCPs, TPP, IPPs, DPs and I2P were quantitatively analysed by GC-FPD using triethylphosphate (TEP) as an internal standard. RSD values of 3-6% were reported for GC-SIM-MS, and 7-9 % for GC-FPD. 

In both cases, GC fingerprint libraries must be built before quantitative analysis can be routinely carried out. In analysis of QTLC by laser pyrolysis scanning (LPS), the TLC plates are placed in a chamber after development, and were irradiated with an IR laser to produce a high temperature at the location of the spot. The analyte is swept by a carrier gas to a GC, and detected with FID or ECD. The technique combines the separation power of TLC and the detection modes of GC [846]. 

Goodacre, R. Edmonds, A. N. Kell, D. B. Quantitative analysis of the pyrolysis-mass spectra of complex mixtures using artificial neural networks Application to amino acids in glycogen. J. Anal. Appl. Pyrolysis 1993, 26, 93-114. 

Goodacre, R. Karim, A. Kaderbhai, M. A. Kell, D. B. Rapid and quantitative analysis of recombinant protein expression using pyrolysis mass spectrometry and artificial neural networks Application to mammalian cytochrome b5 in Escherichia coli. J. Biotechnol. 1994,34,185-193. 

The first application of ANNs to pyrolysis mass spectra from biological samples was by Goodacre, Kell, and Bianchi.96,97 This study permitted the rapid and exquisitely sensitive assessment of the adulteration of extra-virgin olive oils with various seed oils, a task that previously was labor intensive and difficult. Since this study other laboratories have increasingly sought to apply ANNs to the deconvolution and interpretation of pyrolysis mass spectra, the aim being to expand the application of the PyMS technique from microbial characterisation to the rapid and quantitative analysis of the chemical constituents of microbial and other biological samples. 

Goodacre, R. Neal, M. I Kell, D. B. Quantitative analysis of multivariate data using artificial neural networks A tutorial review and applications to the deconvolution of pyrolysis mass spectra. Zbl. Bakt. 1996,284, 516-539. 

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