Chapter 1 - State of the art and definitions of various thermal analysis techniques

Abstract

TA is a technique used for characterizing materials by measuring and analyzing changes in physical or chemical properties resulting from controlled and measured changes in temperature. Modern thermal analytical instruments have progressed from homemade devices used by a relativity small number of scientists to instrument systems that take advantage of the most up-to-date advances in thermal measurement, electronics, computer technology, and materials of construction. Today, these sophisticated instrument systems are used routinely by physical scientists, engineers, materials, and biological scientists in research, product development, quality control, and production. This chapter describes the thermal analysis techniques since the first appearance of DTA by Austen in 1899 using the equipment developed by Kurnakov and Saladin to the most advanced TA techniques to date, including but not limited to differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), temperature-modulated DSC (TMDSC), differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermogravimetry (TG) or thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), thermomechanical analysis (TMA), differential photocalorimetry (DPC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), thermodilatometry (TD), dielectric thermal analysis (DEA), thermally stimulated current (TSC), emanation thermal analysis (ETA), thermoluminescence (TL), fast scanning calorimetry (FSC), and microcalorimetry. It provides introduction to the essential principles, definitions, theories, IUPAC abbreviations, and examples supporting each technique of the 15 mentioned thermal analysis methods. In the meantime, instrumentation, sampling, typical operation, and the main parts of typical TA machines are described. The general thermodynamic relations of parameters associated to annealing are derived and reported as well.