Dual-inlet micro-calorimeter for bio-chemical studies of microliter liquid samples

摘要

We present a fluidic micro-calorimeter that shows high versatility measuring both thermal properties of samples and enthalpies of bio-chemical processes. The micro-calorimeter consists of two stacked chips with silicon nitride membranes that define the liquid chamber of 2.6 μl. The chamber has two inlets which allow real time reactions monitoring. We measured the thermal conductivity and diffusivity of water-methanol solutions with 1% resolution, and we determined the mixing enthalpy for water-methanol system with a signal/ noise ratio of 20. ,