What keeps you from using the DSC as-is? Melting temperature of the salt, for example?

Transient hot wire method !!

Thanks for your suggestions Paul Giesting, but the differential power (deltaP) of heat flux DSC do not take into account the experimental time which modify the output signal. Thanks Luckman, I've though about this method but the head of department says our budget could not buy this!

Well I think if you need a "real and publishable" result you need to go for sophisticated techniques... I am not sure if Laser Flash Method is suitable for salts, it is a good technique for metals and slags.. however the transient hot wire method is superior due to the possibility to eliminate radiation effects...

You could try to use a thermocouple and a calibrated pyrometer and using a heat balance equation .. conduct a simple expt.. however there would be huge loopholes in terms of the emissivty of the liquid.. the shape factor.. transient temperature measurement etc.. so you would end up in a result that would be easily questionable

Hi there. Is your salt a solid, or a salt solution? If a solid of >2mm thickness and you can make a disc >45mm in diameter of this, then we can help you. Or if it is a salt solution then we can also help you if you send us 100ml of it. We use the Lasercomp Fox 50 apparatus with liquid cell to do the tests to Iso 8301. For example we have one plate at 20C and one at 0C and after an hour or so you have the thermal conductivity at a mean of 10C. There are some surface resistance errors which if the solids can be made in two different thicknesses, we can calculate out. These do not affect the liquid.

We could do up to two different samples for you free of charge, and will gladly quote you for many more if you have an industrial sponsor! www.gearingscientific.com UK

Hi guys, First of all thanks for your suggestions and help. @Gence: my sample for first experiment is CaCl2 under powder form. @Gearing: your suggestion sounds good for me and I will contact you in few weeks.

I will start next week some experiments in a heat flux DSC by calculationg the heat losses and see what I get concerning thermal conductivity. Then if the error is too high I will prepare my sample to your lab.

We keep in touch!

It has been reported the measurement of thermal conductivity by Modulated Temperature Differential Scanning Calorimetry (MTDSC), according to the following ASTM test:

ASTM, "Standard Test Method for Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Diffusivity by Modulated Temperature Differential Scanning Calorimetry", Standard Designation: E 1952 – 01.

The process described was covered by a patent: S. M. Marcus and M. Reading, U. S. Patent 5 335 993, 1994, held by TA Instruments, Inc., which seems to be now expired.

A related paper, entitled "Precision and Bias of the ASTM Test E1952 for Thermal Conductivity by Modulated Temperature DSC", authored by Roger L. Blaine and R. Bruce Cassel (both from TA Instruments), was presented at the 29th Conference of the North American Thermal Analysis Society, 24-26 September 2001.

Another reference for the method previously stated is: S. M. Markus and R. L. Blaine, Thermochimica Acta, 1994, 243, 231-239.

An alternative approach, also with MTDSC, was proposed by S. L. Simon, J. W. Sobieski and G. B. McKenna, Proceedings of the 26th Conference of the North American Thermal Analysis Society, K. R. Williams (Ed.), 1998, 129-133 (available from http://www.natasinfo.org/publications/).

It is, in principle, possible to adapt an existing a DSC system for use with the MTDSC technique, but that would require significant development time and expertise in data acquisition and control systems. It is therefore advisable to ask for the possible availability of a ready-to-use company solution, from the same company that supplied your system.

Alternative methods, developed for power-compensated DSC, are addressed by the following patents:

Mikhail Merzliakov, Christoph Schick (PerkinElmer Instruments LLC), Method for measuring absolute value of thermal conductivity, US 6,497,509 B2, Dec. 24 2002; idem (PerkinElmer Health Sciences, Inc.) EP 1 402 249 B1, 05.05.2010.

Victor F. Mazzio (Eastman Kodak Company), Method for determining thermal conductivity incorporating differential scanning calorimetry, US 5,099,441, Mar. 24 1992.

how to find thermal conductivity of LiCl+KCl eutectic mixture. Melting point is 773 K

Is it possible to find Thermal conductivity of LiCl+KCl eutectic mixture using DSC?