A novel application of pyrolysis-gas chromatography to the differentiation of photocopiers

Abstract

A Curie point pyrolyser, a dual wide-bore capillary column gas chromatograph equipped with dual FIDs, and a personal computer were connected online. The differentiation of photocopier toners was based both on the comparison of retention indices and on conventional pattern recognition. A data library is also being compiled with most of the standard samples available in Taiwan. The results demonstrated that the technique was useful for the differentiation of photocopying toners and that the computer-assisted library search based on the comparison of retention indices was a powerful approach to locating suspect photocopying machines.<>