Carbofuran is a kind of carbamate pesticide commonly used on major crops. For understanding of the composition variation versus temperature and pyrolysis mechanism, its pyrolysis behavior was simulated and investigated by pyrolysis-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (Py-GC-MS). The pyrolysates were directly injected for GC-MS analysis. Totally 86 components were determined based on mass spectra library matching with the aid of the correlation of boiling point (bp) and retention time. It was found that carbofuran was obviously decomposed with the temperature increase. A large number of mono aromatics and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were formed when the temperature was higher than 750 degrees C, and the higher was the temperature, the more was the content of the corresponding aromatic hydrocarbon. Besides the aromatic hydrocarbons, there were oxygenous and/or nitrogenous compounds produced in the pyrolysis process. Furthermore, the pyrolysis mechanism of carbofuran was proposed based on the determined pyrolysates and their contents variation versus the temperature. The investigation results can provide the useful information for understanding of the thermal behavior of carbofuran and evaluation of the potential influence of the pyrolysates to living thing and the environment. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.