REACTIVITY OF THE ALIPHATIC HUMIC MOIETY IN ANALYTICAL PYROLYSIS

Humic acid from a podzol soil was subjected to conventional hash pyrol ysis and pyrolysis/methylation in the presence or absence of elemental sulfur. In conventional pyrolysis, fatty and aliphatic dicarboxylic a cids decarboxylate. In addition, cyclization and aromatization reactio ns of aliphatic chains lead to the formation of alkylbenzenes, indenes , naphthalenes, etc. These reactions are enhanced by sulfur and, in ad dition to the production of alkylaromatic compounds, aliphatic chains react with sulfur to form alkylthiophenes, dimethyl(poly)sulfides, etc . Pyrolysis/methylation largely prevents such reactions.