Simultaneous thermal analysis
The simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) is an established method in material characterization, and usually refers to the simultaneous measurement of mass changes by means of thermogravimetry (TG) and caloric effects of a sample by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) during a controlled temperature program. A STA device has several basic advantages:
On the one hand, with the simultaneous thermal analysis, both the temperature-dependent mass changes (TG) and the caloric effects ( e.g. phase transition temperatures and enthalpies ) can be determined using DSC in just a single measurement, which reduces the time required and often saves expensive and difficult-to-produce sample material .
On the other hand, the TG and DSC results of an STA measurement can actually be compared and correlated with one another, since exactly the same measurement conditions prevail and the influences of different sample preparations are also excluded.
Finally, exact knowledge of the current sample mass is always given for an exact enthalpy determination by means of DSC.