Determination of the transfer function of temperature-scanning calorimeters

Abstract The removal of instrumental distortion from the thermokinetic data recorded by means of a temperature-scanning calorimeter requires the determination of the instrument transfer function and of its changes in the course of the experiments. The present study, carried out with a simulated first-order calorimeter, indicates that pseudo-random binary sequences of thermal pulses, generated by a computer system on-line with the calorimeter, can be conveniently used for this purpose. The intensity of the calibration pulses can be decreased so as not to perturb the thermal phenomenon under study. Transfer-function determinations can be automatically repeated at frequent time intervals. The method also allows simultaneous measurement of the calorimeter sensitivity.