Thermal characterization of materials using differential scanning calorimeter

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is a powerful analytical tool for the identification of various physical properties and thermal transitions of polymeric materials. DSC is used to estimate the melting and mesomorphic transitions along with their entropy and enthalpy. Characterization of glass transition temperature (Tg) and other effects that show either changes in heat capacity (Cp) or latent heat of polymeric materials can be performed using DSC. This analytical tool measures thermal transitions, Cp, and enthalpy through calorimetry. Since its invention in the 1960s, DSC has become a trendy thermal analytical tool used in a broad heating kinetic range related to heating and cooling at different heating rates and isothermal conditions. Existing DSCs can cover a broad range of heating rates starting from 1 μK/s to 10 K/s. The application of DSC is crucial in the field of semicrystalline polymeric materials because their phase transitions are dependent on heating/cooling rate. Certain issues associated with DSC are of great interest; these include calculation of baseline Cp and multiple melting peaks required for crystallinity determination using DSC. DSC instrument primarily consists of a thermal scanning chamber and a computer. Two pans are used for heating and cooling in the thermal scanning furnace chamber. The first pan is used to hold the sample, while the second pan remains empty and is used as a reference.