Laboratory of Thermal-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA)

Instrumentation

All instruments used in the thermal analysis laboratory allow for operation in an oxidising atmosphere (5N air) or an inert atmosphere (5N nitrogen, 5N argon, 5.5N helium). These gases are routinely available in the LTA laboratory.

 Thermogravimmetric and differential thermal analysis combined with mass spectrometry (TG-DTA-MS)

The Themys instrument (Setaram, France) enables analysis at very high temperatures (up to 1600 °C), and its integration with the OmniStarTM quadrupole mass spectrometer (Pfeiffer Vacuum, Germany) allows for the detection of evolved gases up to 300 amu.

High-Resolution Thermogravimetry (Hi-Res™ TGA)

The TGA 5500 (TA Instruments) operates in the range from room temperature to 1200 °C and measures mass loss with high precision, offering a wide range of measurement parameter settings.

Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC)

The DSC 3+ (Mettler Toledo, Switzerland) operates in a temperature range from -80 °C to 700 °C and, thanks to temperature-modulated DSC technology, enables the precise separation of overlapping thermal events.

Simultaneous thermogravimmetric and differential scanning calorimetry (TG-DSC)

The SENSYS EVO (Setaram, France) is equipped with symmetrical microbalances that can be used for thermogravimetric analysis. The instrument is also equipped with a 3D Calvet sensor, which allows for the measurement of heat flux around both the sample and the reference crucible and for monitoring the thermal energy of the associated processes. The instrument’s temperature range is −120 °C to 800 °C.

Simultaneous thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetry Thermogravimetric analysis combined with infrared spectroscopy (TG-DTA-FTIR)

The Pyris 1 (Perkin Elmer, USA) with a Frontier infrared spectrometer (Perkin Elmer, USA) provides comprehensive information not only on the weight loss of the sample in the temperature range of 40 °C to 800 °C, but also, thanks to the analysis of released gases, is capable of detecting and identifying the resulting decomposition products.

Table of temperature range of all available instruments

Microbalances

Model MYA 5.5Y (Radwag, Poland). Maximum capacity: 5100 mg; accuracy: 0.001 mg. An essential tool for precise weighing for analysis.