Pyrolysis of linear and cyclic oligosaccharides using a Curie-point pyrolyzer

A Curie-point pyrolyzer directly coupled to a capillary gas chromatograph was applied to analyze the pyrolytic behavior of a series of linear maltose-oligomers with different degrees of polymerization and a series of cyclic dextrins (alpha-cyclodextrin, beta-cyclodextrin, gamma-cyclodextrin). In order to characterize the cleavage process of these compounds, simultaneous pyrolysis and methylation (SPM) was applied on the same sample in the presence of tetramethylammonium hydroxide in methanol. A characteristic difference was found between pyrograms of cyclic and linear oligosaccharides at the same pyrolysis temperature (423 degrees C). Some new peaks detected by SPM on the pyrogram of a-cyclodextrin were assigned by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectorometry. In order to compare with those peaks, methyl cellulose and 2,3,6-tri-O-methyl-beta-cyclodextrin were used as the reference materials.