Scientific publications

An attempt is made to apply pyrolytic mass-spectrometry, using surface ionization to detect the products of pyrolysis as they are released. This method has a high registration sensitivity of particles (molecules, radicals) with an ionization potential 203 of ≤8 eV. As a consequence of the latter property, the method is selective enough and can be used under certain conditions to detect individual organic compounds or groups of compounds in complex organic mixtures – an important feature in our case because no preliminary chemical treatment of samples, which may result in the penetration of alien impurities, is
needed. The authors have shown that anthraxolites exhibit traces of organic matter (OM), its nature being dependent on migration processes in which protomatter was involved. Where migration occurred under mild conditions, the OM of anthraxolite
retained its genetic relation to that of parent rock. Two types of OM, hydrocarbons and minor protomatter impurities of uncertain chemical nature, were identified in shungites.