Massenspektrometrische untersuchungen zur elementaranalyse organischer verbindungen—III: Verbrennungsvorgänge im leeren rohr

A measuring system is described which permits study of all stages of combustion processes as functions of carrier gas, temperature, residence time and tube filling. The organic sample is fed at constant speed into a stream of carrier gas. The mixture reaches the combustion chamber within a few milliseconds via a transfer capillary. With the help of a viscous inlet system, a sample of the resulting reaction products is taken and fed into a mass spectrometer. Reaction time and temperature can be adjusted within wide ranges or varied continuously. A plot of the extent of reaction of the various combustion products against temperature at a chosen reaction time yields an oxidation-thermogram which gives a clear picture of the combustion process. It is evident from thermograms of selected compounds that the samples decompose in the presence of oxygen at appreciably lower temperatures than in inert gas. The primary step of the decomposition is “oxidative pyrolysis” which often leads to other products than “inert pyrolysis”. The intermediate products found are partly structurally specific and, especially with nitrogen-containing samples, are numerous and long-lived (for example, carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, cyanogen, hydrocyanic acid, cyanic acid and methyl cyanate). The notorious “difficult combustibility” is largely due to the fact that carbon monoxide, cyanic and hydrocyanic acids undergo complete combustion only at very high temperature. The combustion properties of the “empty tube” can be improved noticeably by a filling of quartz wool and markedly by partly filling with platinum wool.