Two TA Instruments 2920 Modulated DSC's - one with liquid nitrogen cooling and another with a mechanical cooling accessory and automatic sample changer - are available. These permit measurement of heat capacity and exothermic or endothermic events between -160°C to 600°C. Modulated-temperature programming allows the separation of thermal behaviour into reversing (glass transition and melting) and non-reversing (crystallisation and chemical reaction) events.
Two high temperature DSC's are available for the study of ceramics and metals.
A TA Instruments Q1000 DSC which incorporates innovative Advanced Tzero™ technology is also available.
A TA Instruments 2950 Hi-Res Modulated TGA with automatic sample changer is used to study weight losses over the temperature range 25°C to 1000°C. The modulated-temperature capability allows the kinetics of thermal decomposition processes to be studied and a "high resolution" mode can be used to improve the detection of weight loss processes.
A TA Instruments 2960 SDT for simultaneous TG-DSC measurements between 25°C and 1500°C.
A TA Instruments 2940 TMA monitors dimensional changes as a function of temperature. This allows determination of softening points and thermal expansion coefficients from -70°C to 1000°C. Samples may be run in compression (dilatometry and penetration experiments) or tension (suitable for films and fibres). Modulated-temperature programming is also possible with this instrument.
A TA Instruments 2980 DMA measures the mechanical modulus and damping properites of materials from -140°C to 500°C. A variety of sample holders are available to measure fibres, films and bars in different deformation modes (e.g. three point bending, compression, shear and tension).
The Thin Film Analyser is used to measure build of viscosity of films, typically paints, under real conditions of drying or curing.
A TA Instruments 2990 µTA which combines the topographical mapping capabilities of a scanning probe microscope with the ability to perform localised thermal analysis on a micron scale (µDSC and µTMA). The instrument has the capability to perform localised pyrolysis-evolved gas analysis for the chemical identification of features by GC/MS and is fitted with full AFM modes (non-contact and pulsed force imaging). A temperature stage is available for work at sub-ambient and other temperatures.
All the techniques descibed above can be interfaced to a GC/MS by trapping evolved gases and then thermally desorping them into a Hewlett Packard 6890 Gas Chromatograph with a Hewlett Packard 5973 Mass Selective Detector using a Markes International Unity thermal desorption system.
A Pfeiffer Vacuum Thermostar mass spectrometer is available for direct sampling of evolved gases. In particular, this can be configured to collect pyrolysis products directly from micro-TA measurements - as can the GC/MS.
A Bruker Equinox 55 FT-IR is used for development work in combination with the micro-TA systems for the aquisition of near-field photothermal IR spectra with a spatial resolution better than that available from conventional IR microscopes.
