Main Content
Development of Experimental Techniques: Adsorption Calorimeter for the Direct Measurement of Interface Energies
Figure. Nanojoule Adsorption Calorimetry. Left: The setup for single-crystalline samples. A thin pyroelectric polymer ribbon is mounted in an arch and pressed gently against the backside of the sample. As a MB pulse of molecules adsorb on the single-crystal sample, heat is deposited and is detected as a temperature change in the pyroelectric polymer. Simultaneously, the sticking probability of the molecular pulse is measured by a mass spectrometer, detecting the reflected fraction of the pulse. Right: The setup for polymer samples, organic films and other polycrystalline samples, which are deposited as thin films directly on the detector. (Figure: J.M. Gottfried, R. Schuster, Surface Microcalorimetry, In: K. Wandelt (Ed.), Surface and Interface Science, Volume 5: Solid-Gas Interfaces I, Wiley-VCH Verlag, 2015.)