For the determination of specific heat, many methods are available but not always every method provides proper results. It depends very much on the sample type and shape, if a method can be used for cp determination or not. DSC in general is a common technique to measure temperature dependent cp, however sometimes it is not easy to perform. Especially if the sample is not solid or undergoes phase changes within the measured temperature range.
The Chip-DSC can realize the cp determination with only one crucible by using a definite temperature- modulated heating rate. Therefore, a calibration measurement with a reference material (like sapphire) is recorded, followed by the measurement of the unknown sample that can be evaluated using this calibration.
The measurement example shows the modulated measurement of heat capacity of sapphire (green curve) at a heating rate of 10 K/min with amplitude of 3 K. The upper curves show the evaluated resulting Cp, the lower curves are the modulated raw data curves. Cp was determined with an error of 2% (yellow literature curve), representing an outstanding performance.
With the given sapphire reference, a calibration was created and applied on a polymer sample (red curve) which was measured until the polymer decomposed and evaporated.
