ABSTRACT
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Pyrolysis
, simply put, is the breaking apart of chemical bonds by the use of thermal energy only. Analytical pyrolysis is the technique of studying molecules either by observing their behavior during pyrolysis or by studying the resulting molecular fragments. The analysis of these processes and fragments tells us much about the nature and identity of the original larger molecule. The production of a variety of smaller molecules from some larger original molecule has fostered the use of pyrolysis as a sample preparation technique, extending the applicability of instrumentation designed for the analysis of gaseous species to solids, especially polymeric materials. As a result, gas chromatography, mass spectrometry, and Fourier-transform infrared
(FT-IR) spectrometry may be used routinely for the analysis of samples such as synthetic polymers, biopolymers, composites, and complex industrial materials.
