Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry: expertise description

Applications in various areas Thermal analysis can be defined as "the measurement of some characteristic property of a substance as a function of temperature or time". This might seem a very broad definition but in practise thermal analysis indeed finds a widespread use as a versatile analytical technique in quite different areas. Thermal analysis and calorimetry offer powerful tools to characterize thermophysical properties of materials in a quantitative manner by studying e.g. (de)vitrification, crystallization, melting, heat capacity, enthalpy etc. High scanning rate thermal analysis enables measurements performed under process conditions like e.g. injection molding. Besides quantitative measurements, thermal analysis has proven its strength in the identification of materials or contaminants, including the determination of the relative component composition blends like LDPE/HDPE etc. Another feature of thermal analysis is the ability to investigate chemically reacting systems like for instance polymerization, organic synthesis or curing reactions, providing crucial information for thermal hazard assessment and process up-scaling and optimization. When required, these measurements can be performed under process-conditions. In general, thermal analysis and calorimetry requires only very small sample sizes (mg) for the measurements with no restriction to the physical state of the sample (liquid, solid) or nature of the material e.g. foil, foams, powder, fibers, pellets, filled or coloured etc. In addition, also measurements on a broad range (mg - kg) of sample sizes can be investigated.

Applications

quantitative measurement of thermophysical properties product identification
quality control
kinetics of reacting systems/ thermal-hazard assessment

Products

PE/PP: crystallization, melting, temperature dependent degree of crystallinity, enthalpy, identification of homo- and copolymers, oxidative induction time, temperature dependent linear expansion coefficient, detection of nucleation agents and their effectivity, blend identification.
Engineering Plastics: crystallization, melting, temperature dependent degree of crystallinity, enthalpy, product identification, ratio determination in blends, mixing and demixing enthalpies in blends, temperature dependent linear expansion coefficients, thermal diffusivity/conduction, heat capacities, high scanning rate measurements related to process conditions like injection molding etc.
Fine Chemicals: thermal stability, heat of reaction, thermochemical properties for process optimization and up-scaling, reaction kinetics, vapour pressures, boiling points, polymorphy, phase diagrams.
Resins: glass transition and its changing during curing, vitrification, heat of curing, cure kinetics.
Life Sciences: polymorphy, thermal stability of proteins/denaturation, glass transitions, crystallization, melting.
Thermal Hazard Assessment: screening, heat of reaction, thermal stability, induction times, pressure rise during reactions, decomposition kinetics.