Calorimetry of phase transitions in ultrafast conventional and electromagnetic heating

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More than one-third of the industrial energy consumption today is due to conventional radiant-type furnaces. Electromagnetic heating employing microwave frequencies is an efficient alternative. Additionally, it provides a sound basis for new synthesis methods that rely on the unique ability for selective fast heating to yield new materials, phases or microstructures.Even if the important advantages specific to microwave heating (MH) were recognized long ago, a profound understanding of its mechanisms was not achieved yet. Thus there is a need for advanced in situ experimental methods to monitor in real-time the rapid changes materials undergo during their exposure to electromagnetic fields.Calorimetry at microwave and conventional heating at the same fast rates in combination with in situ X-ray diffraction will allow to distinguish the impact of microwave radiation on phase transitions from that of fast heating alone. This proposal aims to integrate the state-of-the-art knowledge of the Swiss partner at Empa with time-resolved X-ray diffraction (TRXRD) during microwave heating and in situ microwave calorimetry, with the expertise of the German group at Rostock University with ultrafast and modulated calorimetry.Real-time monitoring of absorbed energy and its effects on materials is awaited to give a significant impetus to the further development of energy-saving microwave technologies for the synthesis of complex materials, such as polymer composites. These objectives cannot be realized but in the frame of the proposed transnational D-A-CH collaboration.