Thermal analysis instrumentation is used for a variety of types of experiments, including thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), differential scanning calorimetery (DSC) and thermomechanical analysis (TMA). This instrumentation is used to determine physical or thermodynamic properties of materials in which heat is directly involved, such as boiling, freezing and solidification-point determinations, heat of fusion and heat of vaporization. In some cases thermal studies include measurment of weight changes of a system as a function of increasing temperature. The results of these types of analysis provide meaningful information and a deeper understanding of the effects of temperature changes on materials. Thermal methods are used in studying materials such as polymers and ceramics. This award from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation program will help the Department of Chemistry at the University of Michigan acquire a Thermal Analysis System. The system will be used in the following areas of research. "Synthesis and Characterization of New Fe/S and Fe/Mo/S Clusters as Structural Analogs for Metallo-protein Active Sites and of Binary Metal Sulfides" "Characterization of Organometallic Polymers and Surface Reaction by Thermal Analysis" "Thermal Analysis of Solid-State Intercalation Compounds" "Studies of Solid State Telluride Compounds" "Characterization of Nanometer-Sized Materials" "Characterization of New Heteroaromatic Materials Based on Cyanoimidazole"
