Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)
Netzsch DSC 214 Polyma
The group operates a Netzsch DSC 214 Polyma differential scanning calorimeter (below), used to measure heat flow as a function of time and temperature. Liquid nitrogen cooling enables operation across a temperature range of −170°C to 600°C, with heating and cooling rates of up to 500 K/min. This makes the instrument particularly suited to the characterisation of low-temperature phase transformations, including martensitic transformations in shape memory alloys, as well as precipitation reactions and glass transitions across a wide range of metallic and polymeric materials. Measurements can be performed under inert or oxidising atmospheres.
Netzsch DSC 404
We also have a Netzsch DSC 404 high temperature differential scanning calorimeter, which is used to measure heat flow as a function of time and temperature. This allows us principally to determine phase transition temperatures and investigate phase transformation in the materials as a function of temperature, as well as to determine caloric values such as heat of transformation. Brief details of equipment:
- Room temperature up to 1500°C
- Inert argon / air / vacuum environment
- Heating rate up to 50 K / min
- Cooling rate up to 200 K / min
Typically, samples are heated to melting and/or cooled from molten at a fixed rate of temperature change, and the heat flow measured as a function of temperature is used to determine phase transition temperatures. Example of test data generated:
DSC heating curves for the as-cast condition and after various solution heat treatment steps for single-crystal nickel-base superalloy CMSX-10K; from Pang, H.T., D’Souza, N., Dong, H., Stone, H.J., Rae, C.M.F., "Detailed Analysis of the Solution Heat Treatment of a Third-Generation Single-Crystal Nickel-Based Superalloy CMSX-10K®" (2016) Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A: Physical Metallurgy and Materials Science, 47 (2), pp. 889-906. DOI: 10.1007/s11661-015-3252-2