Quartz Crystal Microbalances for Microscale Thermogravimetric Analysis

摘要

A new method for analyzing the chemical purity andnconsistency of microscale samples with a quartz crystalnmicrobalance (QCM) sensor platform is described. ThenQCM is used to monitor submicrogram changes in thenmass of a deposited thin film as a function of temperature,nin a manner similar to that of a conventional thermogravimetricnanalyzer (TGA). Results correlated well with TGAnmeasurements for a wide range of representative materials,nincluding organic compounds, ionic detergents, oxidizingnand inert powders, carbon nanotubes, and variousnmixtures of these samples. In each case, the sample massnwas on the order of a few micrograms, compared to thenneed for several milligrams for conventional TGA analysis.nThis work illustrates the effectiveness of this approach fornanalysis of nanoparticles, thin films, and highly purifiednspecimens on the microgram scale.