The temperature of maximum pyrolysis yield (known as Tmax) can be used to determine the level of thermal alteration in sedimentary organic matter; higher Tmax values represent higher thermal alteration. Tmax is commonly measured on petroleum source rocks or similar sediments with high organic carbon contents. It would be desirable to measure the Tmax of volcanic sediments because they can have complex patterns of thermal alteration. However, volcanic sediments often have low total organic carbon contents and consequently are susceptible to analytical interferences. Despite this, it can be shown that meaningful Tmax measurements can still be made in sediment with organic carbon contents as low as 0.2% and that interference caused by bitumen or ionizable salts can be mitigated by solvent extraction and rinsing with water. Thus, it is reasonable to use temperature programmed pyrolysis to assess levels of thermal alteration in even low total organic carbon volcanoclastic sediments.

The thermal oxidation kinetics of Si(110) surface up to oxide layer thickness of 1 ML has been investigated by real-time monitoring of chemical shifted in the Si 2p core-level photoemission using synchrotron radiation. The uptake profiles of every Si oxidation states (Sin+: n = 1 − 4) indicate that the top surface Si(110) oxidation proceeds through a two-step oxidation pathway via Si2+ state, just like the Si(001) surface. In contrast to the Si(001) oxidation, however, Si3+ state is always more abundant than Si4+ state during oxidation. This is related to occurrence of imperfect oxidation of this surface, most probably due to accumulation of compressive strain during oxidation.