Fundamentals of Thermal Analysis

1. Definition and types of thermal analysis

Thermal analysis (TA) is defined as the study of the relationship between a sample property and its temperature as the sample is heated or cooled in a controlled manner. Therefore, many thermal analysis techniques are defined and used depending on the physical properties of interest.

Thermal analysis techniques include:

The following physicochemical changes can be measured using commonly used thermal analysis instruments: STA(TG-DTA/DSC) (a simultaneous thermal analysis measurement instrument for TG and DTA/DSC), DSC, and TMA.

2. Thermal analysis model data

Let's look at a typical thermal analysis curve for the measurement results obtained with commonly used thermal analysis equipment. The measurement results of thermal analysis are shown with the target physical quantity on the vertical axis and temperature (or time) on the horizontal axis.

Schematic diagram of thermal analysis curves obtained under linear heating conditions

3. Information obtained from thermal analysis results

The information obtained from the measurement results of STA(TG-DTA/DSC), DSC, and TMA is as follows:

Both DTA and DSC are techniques for measuring the heat transfer that accompanies chemical and physical changes, but DSC can directly measure endothermic and exothermic energy by integrating endothermic and exothermic peaks over time (calculating the area), whereas DTA peak areas do not directly correspond to energy values, but are values proportional to the endothermic and exothermic energy. Therefore, DSC gives quantitative information on endothermic and exothermic energy, while DTA is limited to qualitative information.