Chemical Ionization Pyrolysis Mass Spectrometry of Humic Materials

Pyrolysis mass spectrometry (PYMS) was use to characterize humic acids and fulvic acids in positive-ion and negative-ion acquisitions. A suite of several reference humc acids and fulvic acids, representing a variety of environments, were fast-pyrolyzed in the presence of several reagent gases. Although there was a great deal of similarity in the mass spectra, most culd be differentiated by principal component analysis. Factor score plots showed segregation between fulvic acids and humic acids as well as the type of reagent gas used. An analysis of the corresponding factor spectra established the masses responsible for the separation between the different types of mass spectra