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Examination of the Structure of Soil Humic Acids by Pyrolysis – Gas Chromatography

Abstract

Zemany1 and Harms2 indicated that, if the conditions of pyrolysis are maintained constant, an organic substance will decompose in a specific manner. They utilized this principle for the identification of complex organic materials by pyrolysis-infra-red, or by pyrolysis-mass spectrometry techniques. A number of workers3–10 have also used pyrolysis-gas chromatography techniques for the identification of polymers and for elucidating the structure of non-volatile organic compounds by their characteristic chromatographic patterns. The work recorded here was designed to determine the suitability of the pyrolysis-gas chromatography technique for the identification of the components of soil organic matter, and to establish the lignin or microbial origin of soil organic matter by a comparative study of the chromatographic patterns.

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NAGAR, B. Examination of the Structure of Soil Humic Acids by Pyrolysis – Gas Chromatography. Nature 199, 1213–1214 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/1991213a0

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