Equipment:
- Calorimeter DSC3+ (Mettler Tolledo)
Parameters:
Mettler Tolledo's DSC3+ calorimeter has a furnace that allows the analysis of samples in the range of -140 to 670 ºC, with liquid nitrogen cooling. Measurements can be carried out both in air and inert gas (nitrogen or argon). The device has the ability to select the heating / cooling rate in a wide range. A special feature of our solution is the ability to conduct measurements in the TOPEM® modulated temperature mode, which allows for the separation of thermal effects depending on both temperature and time. The basic idea of this solution is to overlap isothermal or non-isothermal waveforms with a series of random temperature pulses of different durations. This allows e.g. to easily distinguish between reversible and irreversible processes.
Contact person: Marcin Kozanecki
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is one of the most widely used techniques in the analysis of thermal effects accompanying phase transitions and chemical reactions. Employees of the Department of Molecular Physics mainly explore the first research area. Phase transformations in various systems, such as inorganic crystals, polymers and copolymers, composite and hybrid materials, and others are studied. The employees of the Department also have extensive experience in calorimetric studies of liquid crystals and the so-called physical aging in polymers. Often, the results of calorimetry are compared with the results obtained using other techniques, complementary to DSC, available at the Department: vibrational spectroscopy, broadband dielectric spectroscopy, thermo-optical analysis, and are used to explain the mechanisms of the studied transformations. The basic DSC applications include:
- Analysis of phase transitions (temperature of transition, enthalpy of transition) - glass transition and devitrification, crystallization, melting, evaporation, volumetric phase transition, crystal-crystal transitions and others.
- Investigating phase diagrams of various simple substances and complex systems.
- Study of the thermo-mechanical history of polymer samples, e.g. physical aging processes of polymers.
Selected publications:
- “Phase transitions of poly(oligo(ethylene glycol) methyl ether methacrylate)-water systems” – A. Czaderna-Lekka, M. Kozanecki, M. Matusiak, S. Kadlubowski – Polymer 2020
- “The crystallinity of poly(butylene terephthalate) in mass-scale extrusion products as seen by Differential Scanning Calorimetry.” – Polym. Adv. Technol. 2020; DOI: 10.1002/pat.5176