Abstract
In an earlier report from this Laboratory, the identification of compounds formed during the anaerobic pyrolysis of human hair using both electron impact and chemical ionization capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was described. In addition to compounds formed from simple cleavage of amino acids, the formation of 5-substituted 2,4-imidazolidinediones during protein pyrolysis by lactam ring formation was proposed. In this report, the formation of 5-substituted pyrrolidino[1,2 a]-3,6-piperazinediones by a similar mechanism is proposed. Due to the complexity of the hair pyrolyzate, even with separation by capillary gas chromatography, few single-component peaks were obtained with pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The use of capillary pyrolysis-gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry overcame this problem. Electron impact and chemical ionization collisionally activated dissociation experiments provided data which support the proposed formation of 5-substituted 2,4-imidazolidinediones and 5-substituted pyrrolidino[1,2 a]-3,6-piperazinediones during the anaerobic pyrolysis of human hair. None of the results to date, however, show potential usefulness for the forensic examination of hair.
Published Version
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