abstract
- One of the branches of material characterization is thermal analysis which measures the thermophysical and kinetic properties of materials with temperature. In other words, it studies the response of a material to being heated or cooled. The thermal characteristics can be calculated as a function of temperature or time over a wide temperature range. The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the connection between temperature and specific physical properties of materials by introducing some important material characterization techniques. The most commonly applied thermal analytical techniques are thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, and differential thermal analysis which are discussed in this chapter. Thermogravimetric analysis monitors the sample mass compared to time or temperature in a controlled environmental furnace. Differential scanning calorimetry observes heat effects related to phase transitions and chemical reactions as a function of temperature. Lastly, differential thermal analysis can identify and analyze the chemical composition of substances by observing the thermal behavior of a sample during heating. In addition, this chapter covers the history of the aforementioned methods, their mechanism of operation, and example applications focused on biosensing. Finally, the common errors and possible solutions for these techniques are described in the troubleshooting section.