Discovery DSC™ Getting Started Guide
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DSC System Components
A functional Discovery DSC™ system has two major components: the Discovery DSC instrument, which
includes the DSC cell used for monitoring differential heat flow and temperature and a gas delivery mod-
ule; and a cooling accessory. The cooling accessory selected depends on the temperature range desired for
your experiments.
Discovery DSC
The Discovery
DSC instrument consists of a cell module, gas delivery module, and optional Autosampler.
These components are described below.
Discovery DSC Cell
In a “heat flux” DSC, the sample material (encapsulated in a pan) and an empty reference pan are placed
on a thermoelectric sensor surrounded by a furnace. The DSC cell module is shown below.
Figure 2
DSC cell module.
As the temperature of the furnace is changed (usually by heating at a linear rate), heat is transferred to and
from the sample and reference through the thermoelectric sensor. The differential heat flow to the sample
and reference is measured by a thermocouple device using the thermal equivalent of Ohm's Law.
