DSC data in CureKinetics

CureKinetics is able to read modulated and non-modulated DSC measures acquired in different instruments such as Mettler-Toledo, TA Instruments, PerkinElmer or Netzsch. DSC Data can also be presented in ASCII file with three columns: 1st column for the time, 2nd column for the temperature and the 3rd column for the measured heat flux. The DSC data for kinetic analysis can be presented as a set of dynamic measurements with different heating rates, as the set of isothermal measurements with different temperatures or a combination of both. Due to the robustness of the kinetic analysis, the software also allows the entry of a set of variable temperature profiles. See here an example of DSC data entry.

Heat flow integration techniques are conceived in order to facilitate baseline identification for isothermal and dynamic scans (see an example here).

DSC data analysis

CureKinetics is a reliable solution to understand and model cure behaviour. Based on isothermal or dynamic DSC data, the evolution of glass transition temperature, inhibition decomposition or gel time can be easily modelled.

As shown in this example, glass transition temperature (Tg) of the polymer can be studied and modeled based on DiBendetto’s equation.

Inhibition decomposition and gel time can also be modeled based on a time-temperature integral that can be solved for isothermal or dynamic runs.

As shown in the following figure, CureKinetics implements Time-Temperature-Transformation diagrams in order to visualize the state of the material for a given processing cycle. TTT diagrams also permits to visualize the quality of the chosen reaction model.