Abstract
Two remarkable trends of diversification have been recently observed in thermal analysis, and they are those in techniques and heating modes. Evolved gas analysis (EGA) with a mass spectrometer (MS) is one example of diversification in techniques. In conventional thermal analysis, such as DTA, DSC, and TG, it was implicitly thought before that the sample is heated at a constant heating rate, but controlled rate thermal analysis, temperature modulation technique, temperature jump method, and rate jump method have recently been utilized as new heating modes. Usefulness of these new heating modes are illustrated with applications of thermogravimetry, EGA(MS) and their simultaneous measurement to polymers and inorganic substances. New facts were found by combined use of various heating modes. Versatility of these new techniques and new heating modes is also shown in their potential applicability to new tasks, i.e., complex reactions, such as competitive parallel reactions and consecutive reactions.
