Chip calorimetry for fast cooling and thin films: a review

Abstract

Here we review on the thin-film chip calorimeter with controllable cooling as well as heating rates up to 10⁶ K·s^−1 developed in the last 5 years at the Institute of Physics, Rostock University. The calorimeter has been successfully used for fast thermal processing and simultaneous calorimetric measurements of many polymer samples, the physical properties of which are generally dependent strongly on their thermal history. Besides, owing to the very small addenda heat capacity, the calorimeter is very sensitive to study samples of only several tenths of nanograms. With differential alternating current (AC) design, the sensitivity of the calorimeter increased to a few tenths of pico-Joules per Kelvin. Therefore, it can be used to study glass transition of polymers confined in ultra-thin films down to several nanometers thickness. After the discussion of the strategy to realize fast cooling, we describe the static and dynamic thermal properties of the sensors used for the setup of the calorimeter. Finally, we present examples to show the performance of the calorimeter in different measurement modes.