Many thanks to all for this excellent discussion on pyrolysis.  We don't
have a pyrolysis set-up here right now, but as we will be getting one
shortly, this all makes for excellent reading!

A question if I may - I was wondering if anybody knows what happens to Cl,
N and S during pyrolysis?  Do these elements combine to form any gas
species with C?  Are elemental species (such as N2 or Cl2) produced?  Does
the gas species depend on the initial oxidation state of the element, e.g.
nitrate-N vs. amino-N or sulphate-S vs. sulphide-S?  I would guess that
oxidised forms (e.g. nitrate-N) might form elemental species, but that
initially reduced species (e.g. chloride, amino-N, sulphide-S) might not?
Can other gas species be produced, such as HCl?  Are any of these elements
sequestered in the sample capsule?

The particular application I have in mind for the future is dD analysis of
chlorinated hydrocarbons by GC-pyrolysis, but thinking about it got me to
wondering what happens to N and S as well as Cl.

Thanks in advance for any comments or thoughts!

Cheers,
Simon Poulson

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Simon R. Poulson
Dept. of Geological Sciences MS-172
University of Nevada-Reno
Reno, NV 89557-0138
USA
Phone: (775) 784-1104
Fax: (775) 784-1833
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