Developing a new set of temperature calibration materials for high-temperature thermal analyses

A new set of Research Grade Test Materials (RGTMs) has been developed for accurate temperature calibration in high-temperature differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The candidate eutectic binary alloys and their melting temperatures (m.p.) are Ni-41Nb (The alloy compositions are presented as mole fraction percentages, and the purity of elements and alloys is represented in mass fraction percentages) (1181 °C), Co-13Nb (1240 °C), Fe-10Nb (1372 °C), Rh-23.5Si (1421 °C), and Ru-28Si (1535 °C). This set of calibration alloys will cover the temperature range between the melting points of gold (1064 °C) and nickel (1455 °C) and help eliminate uncertainties caused by the oxidation of Ni and its eutectic reaction of L (Ni) + NiO. Additionally, DSC/DTA instruments that require intermediate temperature calibration between gold and nickel can now accurately perform temperature calibration using these new RGTMs. After calibrating with RGTMs instead of Ni, the estimated variance has improved from 9.16 to 0.65 °C.