Polymer analysis by pyrolysis gas chromatography

Pyrolysis gas chromatography (Py-GC) has been an important technique in the qualitative and quantitative analysis of polymers for more than thirty years. Recent developments in Py-GC technology are mainly focused on pyrolysis operation and applications. In the former category, the focus is on the development of flexible pyrolysis instrumentation, "pre-" and "post-" pyrolysis derivatization and database creation/maintenance. In the application field, the development focused on kinetics of thermal degradation, structure determination and integrate techniques associated with pyrolysis to perform qualitative and quantitative analysis of low level additives in polymers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.