High temperature differential scanning calorimeter for the analysis of metastable materials

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The purchase of a high temperature differential scanning calorimeter (DSC, a DSC 401 F1 Pegasus by NETZSCH) is very urgent and critical to my research program and the training of HQP. There is no DSC on Campus that can reach 2000C nor is there another company that makes a 2000C DSC. A DSC requires a sample to be heated uniformly and to measure any additional thermal energy change due to a phase transformation or precipitation. As such, it provides a bulk measurement and is unique in providing reliable near thermodynamic equilibrium data. When a material is far from equilibrium (metastable), running this sample in a DSC brings it much closer to equilibrium and the DSC provides a quantitative measure of the temperature and the enthalpy associated with that event. Thus, the DSC provides critical processing information on the degree a material is metastable and the effect on microstructure of the temperature/time path for that material to return to equilibrium (eg. rapid solidification, aging and tempering). This is a key instrument for a number of collaborative projects funded by the NSERC CR&D (with EVRAZ, TCEnergy, Enerkem, Stelco, Syncrude and Equispheres). In my research program, many of these projects depend heavily on access to a high temperature DSC. Our current DSC is from Setaram. It is 12 years old, obsolete, only reaches 1200C and is presently not operational. This temperature ceiling is inadequate for testing high temperature materials such as cobalt alloys, steels, NiBSi powders with WC and many slags. At least 15 diverse HQP need regular yearly access to a DSC and an additional 10 HQP are affected at the labs of our international collaborators. Access to a DSC provides modern innovative training in the state-of-the-art characterization techniques of materials. A plan for the sustainability of the DSC is proposed.