Simultaneous thermal analysis/mass spectrometric detection of biological hazards.

A simultaneous working TA-MS instrument has been used to investigate the thermal behaviour and the decomposition of a series of toxic organic compounds such as flame protected polymers and chlorine-substituted aromatic products that are known to be injurious to health. The temperature-dependent TA-MS data given by the TG, DTG, DTA and MS results lead to a nearly complete description of the degradation properties of the materials. This includes the identification of the main decomposition components by means of in situ quadrupole MS ranging up to 511 a.