Instrument: Netzsch 403 Aeolos Simultaneous Thermal Analyser
Simulataneous thermal analysis (STA) is a technique whereby two or more measurements are made at the same time, typically DSC and TGA.
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is a thermal technique that allows materials to be characterised based on their behaviour during heating in relation to a known reference.
The difference in energy required to heat a sample can be used to identify/characterise a sample based on the determination of phase transition (e.g. melting point) temperatures.
Consequently DSC is widely used in materials analysis to understand sample composition of and is widely used to determine polymer content in plastics for example.
Alternatively, DSC can be used to modify a sample to a desired state (e.g. dehydrated, pyrolysed) or simply to understand how a sample will behave under thermal stress.
Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is a technique were the mass of sample is monitored as the temperature is increased. This allows us to follow and investigate a range of physiochemical events, such as phase transitions, decompositions, dehydrations, absorptions and desorptions.
Our STA includes both DSC and TGA and also have a function where gases that are emitted from the sample can be passed to either a mass spectrometer or to an FT-IR for analysis and identification.