I-Corps: Multi-Element Scanning Thermal Analysis (MESTA) Technology for Industry, Academic Research and Other Applications

在研究和工业应用中，对气溶胶、土壤和沉积物等复杂基质中的非均质固体样品进行整体化学分析是非常必要的，但由于可用的分离技术有限，这一分析很困难。目前，学术研究人员使用固态核磁共振、x射线光电子能谱（XPS）和x射线吸收近边结构（XANES）等复杂方法分析他们的非均质固体混合物，以确定碳(C)、氮(N)和硫(S)化合物的形式。这些复杂的方法成本高昂，大多数研究人员无法使用。大多数研究人员会通过元素分析仪分析样品来满足他们的分析需求，这种分析仪只能提供大量的C、N和S浓度，几乎没有关于化合物化学性质的信息。该团队开发了多元素扫描热分析（MESTA）技术来解决这个问题，并成功地将其应用于气溶胶的直接分析，具有灵敏度，精度和准确性。所提出的技术，MESTA可以表征化合物的热化学性质，根据其定量的C， N， S和H热图，在大范围的样品中，不需要或很少需要预处理。这种相对简单和新颖的技术填补了在工业和学术研究应用中经常遇到的异质样品的整体（非部分）化学分析的重大空白。例如，MESTA可以快速和经济有效地确定原油样品中石油最终产品的数量和质量，并评估每种产品中对环境的污染杂质（S和N化合物的含量和形式）。MESTA可以简化地质、土壤和环境科学学术研究所需的许多固体环境样品的分析。可对工业样品进行常规分析，进行质量控制和保证。它在食品和食品质量控制和检验、国土安全物质鉴定和表征等方面具有重要的应用价值。

Holistic chemical analysis of heterogeneous solid samples in complex matrixes such as aerosols, soils and sediments is very desirable in research and industry applications but difficult due to the limited available separation technology. Currently, academic researchers analyze their heterogeneous mixture of solids using sophisticated methods such as the solid state NMR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) to identify the forms of the Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Sulfur (S) compounds. Those sophisticated methods are costly and not available to most researchers. Most researchers would settle their analytical needs by analyzing their sample with an elemental analyzer, which provides only the bulk C, N and S concentrations and little information about the chemical nature of the compounds. This team has developed the Multi-Element Scanning Thermal Analysis (MESTA) technology to solve this problem and successfully applied it to the direct analysis of aerosols with sensitivity, precision and accuracy.The proposed technology, MESTA can characterize the thermochemical properties of compounds, in terms of their quantitative C, N, S and H thermograms, in a wide range of samples with no or little requirement of pretreatment. This relatively simple and novel technology fills a significant gap in the holistic (non-partial) chemical analysis of heterogeneous samples that are often encountered in industrial and academic research applications. For example, MESTA can quickly and cost-effectively determine the quantity and quality of petroleum end products from a crude oil sample and assess their polluting impurities to the environment (contents and forms of S and N compounds) in each product. MESTA can simplify the analysis of many solid environmental samples necessary for academic research of geo, soil and environmental sciences. It can do routine analysis of industrial samples for quality control and assurance. It is valuable in foods and food products quality control and inspection, in homeland security substance identification and characterization.