Thermal analysis and calorimetry beyond 2000: challenges and new routes

Abstract

A brief overview is given of developments in thermal analysis and calorimetry (TA&C) in the last few decades. The overview is followed by a discussion of the trends anticipated, the (un)desirability of these trends and the actions that need to be taken. Over the last few decades, the popularity of TA&C has increased at an impressive rate. However, educational institutes are paying less and less attention to analytical expertise, including TA&C. This means the number of practitioners is steadily decreasing and TA&C is increasingly becoming a ‘purely analytical tool’ for users. Moreover, TA&C is seen as a simple and cheap method which has reached the limits of its potential. It seems that the success of TA&C is having a paralyzing effect, causing developments to stagnate. Due to the lack of practitioners, there is not enough technology push to drive new developments that are of a scientific rather than commercial interest, and there threatens to be a lack of contact between the TA&C community and the scientific community. As a result, the competence level of TA&C users threatens to decrease, simply because there are fewer examples of ‘state of the art’ TA&C work in the form of studies and publications, and because the number of training facilities is decreasing. This is an alarming trend. Suggestions are offered for reversing this trend and a proposal is made for a concrete approach to ensure that the necessary actions with regard to TA&C will be implemented via National Societies for Information, Communication and Education and National Expertise Centers for Development. The quantitative capabilities of TA&C and past and future developments are illustrated with reference to polymers on the basis of examples of quantitative DSC, high-rate calorimetry, high-pressure DSC, real-time X-ray and SALLS and temperature-modulated reaction calorimetry. The combining of TA&C and scanning probe microscopy (SPM), with the aim of providing time- and position-resolved analyses of materials, is discussed as an example of a promising development.