Erisman, E.
, Simon, Y.
and Wallace, W.
(2026),
NIST Polymer Pyrolysis Search: A new pyrolysis GC-MS search program and mass spectral reference library, ACS Environmental Science and Technology, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5c18872, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=960873 (Accessed August 1, 2026)
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NIST Polymer Pyrolysis Search: A new pyrolysis GC-MS search program and mass spectral reference library
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Abstract
Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of a material in an inert environment and is used in combination with GC-MS (Py-GC/MS) for analyzing the chemical composition of a wide variety of materials. The identification and deconvolution of polymers and polymer mixtures using a searchable mass spectral library of individual pyrolysis products (pyrolyzates) is presented. It is demonstrated that this method can successfully identify components in a mixture of polyolefins, a polymer within a complex biological matrix (with a pre-pyrolysis in-situ hydrolysis and methylation step), and copolymers from their individual polymers. The resulting interactive, freely-available search software application and pyrolysis reference library is described.Citation
ACS Environmental Science and Technology
Volume
60
Issue
27
Pub Type
Journals
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Keywords
Py-GC/MS, mass spectral reference library, microplastics, nanoplastics, pyrolysis
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Created June 29, 2026, Updated July 31, 2026