ADJUSTMENT OF HEATING RATE FOR MAXIMUM RESOLUTION IN TG AND TMA (MAXRES)

Conventional thermogravimetric analysis (TG) uses constant heating rat es to determine decomposition rates of a material and compositional an alysis. Often, the decomposition steps can not be separated clearly en ough due to parallel or consecutive reactions. If the reaction rates a nd the respective activation energies are enough different the TG reso lution can be much enhanced by lowering the heating rate during the de composition steps. The automated discrete adjustment of the heating ra te is controlled by a set of parameters, such as threshold values, wai ting times and rate factors. This technique, called MaxRes, allows for faster compositional analysis without loss of resolution. The same te chnique is also applicable to thermomechanical analysis (TMA) if time/ temperature dependent events such as softening are to be separated.