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How does the TGA instrument reveal the secret of the thermal stability of substances?
In today's materials science research, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) has become an important tool for understanding the thermal stability of materials. This method can monitor how the mass of a sample changes with temperature and provide important information about physical and chemical phenomena.
Thermogravimetric analysis can reveal a variety of material behaviors such as adsorption, chemical decomposition, and redox reactions, which makes it appealing in material property analysis.
The instrument that uses thermogravimetric analysis is called a thermogravimetric analyzer. Through a precision balance and a temperature-controlled furnace, it can accurately measure the change in mass of a sample. As the sample temperature changes, the instrument generates a TGA curve, which is the key to analyzing the thermal behavior of the material.
Principles of Thermogravimetric Analysis
The basic principle of TGA is to observe the changes in sample mass through long-term temperature changes. It can not only be used to analyze phase changes of substances, but also reveal chemical processes such as thermal decomposition and solid-gas reactions.
Usually, the first derivative plot of the TGA curve (DTG curve) can be used to determine important inflection points, which are crucial for in-depth interpretation of material behavior.
TGA techniques are generally of three main types: isothermal thermogravimetric analysis, quasi-static thermogravimetric analysis, and dynamic thermogravimetric analysis. Depending on the experimental requirements, researchers can choose the most appropriate type to test.
Analysis of thermal stability
Evaluating the thermal stability of materials is one of the most important applications of TGA. If the mass of a material does not change significantly over a certain temperature range, it is considered thermally stable within this range.
For many polymers, they tend to begin to melt or decompose before 200°C, while some thermally stable polymers can remain stable at 300°C and 500°C.
This makes TGA an excellent tool for studying high-performance polymer materials, especially in the aerospace and automotive industries, where thermal stability is crucial.
Oxidation and combustion behavior
TGA can also be used to study oxidation and combustion reactions. The residue of a material is often the easiest to characterize; researchers can heat a sample to cause it to burn and observe the change in mass and the percentage of residue that remains.
For example, NASA is currently researching new copper alloys to ensure their oxidation resistance in high-temperature environments, which is critical for reusable spacecraft materials.
Analysis of these properties can not only be applied to the development of new materials, but also to improve the performance of existing materials to meet industry needs.
TGA kinetics and other instruments
Exploration of TGA kinetics allows researchers to gain insight into the thermal decomposition processes of various materials. Combined with other analytical techniques, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and mass spectrometry, TGA can provide a more comprehensive analysis of material characterization.
By heating the samples to 2000°C and simultaneously testing them gravimetrically, the researchers were able to fully assess the samples' decomposition and reaction behavior.
This comprehensive analysis provides important support for the progress of materials science, helping researchers better understand the behavior of materials under different conditions.
ConclusionIn general, thermogravimetric analysis is not only a key technology for analyzing the thermal stability of materials, but also an important tool for exploring new materials and improving existing materials. Looking to the future, how can we use this technology more effectively to unlock more mysteries of materials science?
