Comparing Different Types of Pyrolysis

Pyrolyzers can be categorized into three different types of pyrolysis: filament type, curie-point induction, and micro-furnace. This video will offer an overview of the benefits of the vertical micro-furnace design and how it can improve your analytical capabilities.

Filament type pyrolyzer heats a sample tube with a filament; induction type pyrolyzer heats a sample foil by high-frequency magnetic field; and furnace type pyrolyzer heats a sample by dropping a sample cup to a heated furnace.

The filament type has a drawback in temperature accuracy and moreover, a sample may not be uniformly heated, leading to poor reproducibility. Further, high boiling compounds may be absorbed in the transfer line that conveys the pyrolyzates to GC, making it difficult to introduce high boiling compounds to a GC column.

The curie-point induction type should theoretically have a high furnace temperature accuracy; however, a sample cannot be ramp-heated as required for EGA-MS analysis. Further, the way the sample is wrapped with a metal alloy foil can vary and this leads to poor reproducibilities.

Frontier Labs pyrolyzer is a furnace type pyrolyzer in which a sample in a sample cup is dropped (free fall) into a preheated furnace. It has the following advantages over other types:

1. Features accurate furnace set temperature in a broad temperature range or continuous ramp-up heating.
2. Can be directly interfaced to GC injector, allowing the complete introduction of low to high molecular weight compounds to GC.
3. A sample is simply placed in a sample cup and ready for analysis.