Potential sources of by-products generated by the Tenax® trap of SAM
Résumé
Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) experiment onboard the Curiosity rover onboards a Gas Chromatography (GC) coupled to a Mass Spectrometer (MS).To adapt on the nature of a sample to the analytical devices used, a sample preparation and gas processing system implemented with (a) a pyrolysis system, (b) wet chemistry: MTBSTFA and TMAH (c) the hydrocarbon trap (silica beads, Tenax® TA and Carbosieve G) and the injection trap (Tenax® GR composed of Tenax® TA and 30% of graphite) are used to concentrate volatiles released from the sample prior to GC-MS analysis [1]. This study investigates all the potential sources of by-products (artifacts and backgrounds) generated by the Tenax® trap itself and all the by-products coming from the interaction of Tenax® with the derivatizing agent MTBSTFA and martian perchlorates.