Micromechanical thermogravimetry on single zeolite crystals

摘要

Thermal analytical techniques are routinely used to study mass variation during desorption, adsorption, or decomposition of materials. We have developed a new micromechanical thermogravimetric technique to investigate femtogram mass changes in nanogram sample quantities upon thermal cycling. This method is based on a cantilever-type microbalance, which is simultaneously used to heat the sample and weight its mass. New measurements of individual zeolite (ZSM-5) microcrystals having a mass of approx approx 150 ng as well as corresponding finite-element simulations of the miniaturized chemical analytical system are presented.