COMPARISON OF THE ANALYTICAL PERFORMANCE OF FILAMENT AND CURIE-POINT PYROLYSIS DEVICES

A wide range (16) of synthetic polymers, biological and organic geoche mical samples was chosen to compare the performance of filament and Cu rie-point pyrolysis devices in combination with gas chromatography/mas s spectrometry (py-GC/MS). The pyrolysis results were compared qualita tively, quantitatively and using statistical data visualization method s. Multivariate visualization methods showed a good reproducibility be tween consecutive runs of the same sample. Statistical analyses of pro cessed py-GC/MS data and qualitative comparison of total ion and mass chromatograms revealed a high degree of comparability between the data obtained from the two pyrolysis devices. This investigation constitut es the first systematic comparison of the two most widely used pyrolys is devices and demonstrates that their results can be confidently cros s-referenced providing that all other analytical variables, e.g. sampl e size, GC column stationary phase, carrier gas, etc. are strictly con trolled. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.