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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Thermal analysis?

Also known as: cooling curve

Definition 8.1 University Chemistry — Year 2 · Chapter 8 — Binary Solid–Liquid Diagrams

Thermal analysis determines the temperatures of the changes of state of a sample from its temperature recorded while it is heated or cooled at a steady rate. The record of temperature against time during a slow cooling is a cooling curve.

Cooling curves, schematic. A pure metal freezes on a plateau. A mixture shows a break in slope when the first solid appears, then the slow cooling of a liquid that freezes over a range of temperatures, then the plateau of the eutectic. A liquid of the eutectic composition freezes on a single plateau, like a pure substance.
Cooling curves, schematic. A pure metal freezes on a plateau. A mixture shows a break in slope when the first solid appears, then the slow cooling of a liquid that freezes over a range of temperatures, then the plateau of the eutectic. A liquid of the eutectic composition freezes on a single plateau, like a pure substance.
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