Analysis of organic matter by flash pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in the presence of Na-smectite: When clay minerals lead to identical molecular signature

Pyrograms of humic acid and undecanoic acid in the presence of 90% of Na-smectite are similar, especially concerning alkylbenzene and alkylnaphthalene distributions. Therefore, clays (Na-smectite in our experiments) in high proportion modify initial organic products by recombination reactions and lead to the generation of new compounds of very similar distribution, whatever the nature of the initial organic matter. Such results underline the very important catalytic properties of clay minerals on functionalized organic matter during flash pyrolysis.