An analytical expression of the output of a power-compensated DSC in a wide temperature range

Abstract

We present an upgrade of our previous theoretical model of a power-compensated twin calorimeter with particular reference to the DSC-7 manufactured by Perkin-Elmer. The aim of this generalization is to provide an analytical description of a measured heating curve in a fairly wide range of temperature. To reach this goal, we emulate the “ΔT balance” (ΔTB) control and the “slope” (SL) control of the DSC-7, which are used to modify curvature and slope of a measured curve. The implementation of these two functions has simply required the introduction of three new parameters. In this way, we got a fairly good analytical description of the calorimeter response, when the holders are empty, whatever the setting of both controls. We present results in the temperature range from 248 to 423K. One of the above mentioned parameters turns out to be linearly dependent exclusively on the ΔTB; while the other two are linearly dependent both on the ΔTB and SL. These results provide the means to get a calibration of the instrument with respect to the ΔTB and SL settings.