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Purvis G, Sano N, van der Land C, Barlow A, Lopez-Capel E, Cumpson P, Hood J, Sheriff J, Gray N. Combining thermal hydrolysis and methylation-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to characterise complex organic assemblages in geological material. MethodsX 2019; 6:2646-2655. [PMID: 31799133 PMCID: PMC6883294 DOI: 10.1016/j.mex.2019.10.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2019] [Accepted: 10/29/2019] [Indexed: 10/27/2022] Open
Abstract
What follows is a method applicable generically to the analysis of low levels of organic matter that is embedded in either loose fine-grained or solid geological material. Initially, the range of organic compounds that could be detected in a geological sample using conventional pyrolysis chromatography/mass spectrometry was compared to the range that was detected using thermally assisted hydrolysis and methylation-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (THM-GC/MS). This method was used to validate the synthetic components fitted to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) carbon spectra of the sample. Reciprocally, XPS analysis was able to identify the constituent carbon-carbon, carbon-oxygen and carbon-nitrogen bonds of the functional groups in the compounds identified by THM-GC/MS. The two independently derived outputs from the THM-GC/MS and the XPS techniques mutually validated the identification of organic compounds in our geological samples. We describe in detail the improvements to: •The preparation of geological samples for analysis by XPS.•Measurements of organic material in geological samples using GC/MS.•The use of THM-GC/MS and XPS data used together to characterise low levels of organic material in geological samples.
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Affiliation(s)
- Graham Purvis
- Earth, Ocean & Planetary Science Research, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Naoko Sano
- Ionoptika Ltd., Eastleigh, Hampshire, UK
| | - Cees van der Land
- Earth, Ocean & Planetary Science Research, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Anders Barlow
- Materials Characterisation and Fabrication Platform (MCFP), Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | - Elisa Lopez-Capel
- Earth, Ocean & Planetary Science Research, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Peter Cumpson
- Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - James Hood
- National ESCA and XPS Users' Service (NEXUS), Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Jake Sheriff
- National ESCA and XPS Users' Service (NEXUS), Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
| | - Neil Gray
- Earth, Ocean & Planetary Science Research, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
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