Calorimetry of phase transitions in ultrafast conventional and electromagnetic heating

目前，超过三分之一的工业能源消耗是由传统的辐射型炉造成的。采用微波频率的电磁加热是一种有效的替代方法。此外，它为新的合成方法提供了坚实的基础，这些方法依赖于选择性快速加热的独特能力来产生新的材料、相或微结构。即使微波加热（MH）的重要优势很久以前就被认识到，但对其机理的深刻理解尚未实现。因此，需要先进的原位实验方法来实时监测材料在暴露于电磁场期间所经历的快速变化。在微波和常规加热下以相同的快速速率进行的量热法结合原位X射线衍射将允许区分微波辐射对相变的影响和单独的快速加热的影响。该提案旨在将Empa瑞士合作伙伴的最新知识与微波加热和原位微波量热法期间的时间分辨X射线衍射（TRXRD）相结合，利用德国罗斯托克大学的超快和调制量热法小组的专业知识。实时监测吸收的能量及其对材料的影响，期待着为能源的进一步发展提供重大推动力-节省微波技术用于合成复杂材料，如聚合物复合材料。这些目标只有在拟议的跨国D-A-CH合作框架内才能实现。

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.