Heat-flow calorimetry

The determination of the heat flow relies on the so-called Seebeck effect. An electric potential, known as thermoelectric force and represented by E, is observed when two wires of different metals are joined at both ends and these junctions are subjected to dilferent temperatures, 7j and T2 (figure 9.1a). Several thermocouples can be associated, forming a thermopile (figure 9.1b). For small temperature differences, the thermoelectric force generated by the thermopile is proportional to 7j - T2 and to the number of thermocouples of the pile ( /)  

Assuming that the heat transfer is made by conduction through the thermocouple wires, the heat flow rate ( P =dQ/dt, where t is time) between the systems at temperatures 7) and T2 is also directly related to the difference 

X being the average thermal conductivity of the metal wires. Therefore, 

In conclusion, the area of a plot of E against time (the measuring curve or thermogram) will be proportional to the net heat input or output (Q). In practice, the proportionality constant (X/ne ) is determined in a separate calibration experiment (see following discussion). 

The reverse of the Seebeck effect is called the Peltier effect and results from flowing an electric current through the circuits of figure 9.1. If the junctions are initially at the same temperature, a temperature gradient will be developed for instance, in the case of figure 9.1a, one of the junctions will cool and the other will warm. Associated with this electric current there will also be a Joule (resistive) effect, so that the net power (P) produced at each junction is given by 

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Figure 12-7. Simplified scenario of a thermal runaway. (Source T. Hoppe and B. Grob, Heat flow calorimetry as a testing method for preventing runaway reactions," Int. Symp. on Runaway Reactions, OCRS, AlChE, March 7-9, 1989.)...

Hoppe, T. and Grob, B., Heat Flow Calorimetry for Preventing Runaway Reactions, Chem. Eng. Prog., V. 89, No. 1, 1990. 

A survey of the literature shows that although very different calorimeters or microcalorimeters have been used for measuring heats of adsorption, most of them were of the adiabatic type, only a few were isothermal, and until recently (14, 15), none were typical heat-flow calorimeters. This results probably from the fact that heat-flow calorimetry was developed more recently than isothermal or adiabatic calorimetry (16, 17). We believe, however, from our experience, that heat-flow calorimeters present, for the measurement of heats of adsorption, qualities and advantages which are not met by other calorimeters. Without entering, at this point, upon a discussion of the respective merits of different adsorption calorimeters, let us indicate briefly that heat-flow calorimeters are particularly adapted to the investigation (1) of slow adsorption or reaction processes, (2) at moderate or high temperatures, and (3) on solids which present a poor thermal diffusivity. Heat-flow calorimetry appears thus to allow the study of adsorption or reaction processes which cannot be studied conveniently with the usual adiabatic or pseudoadiabatic, adsorption calorimeters. In this respect, heat-flow calorimetry should be considered, actually, as a new tool in adsorption and heterogeneous catalysis research. 

Finally, most previous calorimetric studies in this field have been devoted to adsorption processes only, and very seldom were these studies extended to the investigation of complete catalytic reactions. The work of Garner and his collaborators in Bristol (18) is a notable exception. Heat-flow calorimetry is particularly convenient for such studies (19). 

The basic principle of heat-flow calorimetry is certainly to be found in the linear equations of Onsager which relate the temperature or potential gradients across the thermoelements to the resulting flux of heat or electricity (16). Experimental verifications have been made (89-41) and they have shown that the Calvet microcalorimeter, for instance, behaves, within 0.2%, as a linear system at 25°C (41)-A. heat-flow calorimeter may be therefore considered as a transducer which produces the linear transformation of any function of time f(t), the input, i.e., the thermal phenomenon under investigation]] into another function of time ig(t), the response, i.e., the thermogram]. The problem is evidently to define the corresponding linear operator. 

The development of the theory of heat-flow calorimetry (Section VI) has demonstrated that the response of a calorimeter of this type is, because of the thermal inertia of the instrument, a distorted representation of the time-dependence of the evolution of heat produced, in the calorimeter cell, by the phenomenon under investigation. This is evidently the basic feature of heat-flow calorimetry. It is therefore particularly important to profit from this characteristic and to correct the calorimetric data in order to gain information on the thermokinetics of the process taking place in a heat-flow calorimeter. 

It is true, however, that many catalytic reactions cannot be studied conveniently, under given conditions, with usual adsorption calorimeters of the isoperibol type, either because the catalyst is a poor heat-conducting material or because the reaction rate is too low. The use of heat-flow calorimeters, as has been shown in the previous sections of this article, does not present such limitations, and for this reason, these calorimeters are particularly suitable not only for the study of adsorption processes but also for more complete investigations of reaction mechanisms at the surface of oxides or oxide-supported metals. The aim of this section is therefore to present a comprehensive picture of the possibilities and limitations of heat-flow calorimetry in heterogeneous catalysis. The use of Calvet microcalorimeters in the study of a particular system (the oxidation of carbon monoxide at the surface of divided nickel oxides) has moreover been reviewed in a recent article of this series (19). 

It must be acknowledged, however, that the determination of the number of the different surface species which are formed during an adsorption process is often more difficult by means of calorimetry than by spectroscopic techniques. This may be phrased differently by saying that the resolution of spectra is usually better than the resolution of thermograms. Progress in data correction and analysis should probably improve the calorimetric results in that respect. The complex interactions with surface cations, anions, and defects which occur when carbon monoxide contacts nickel oxide at room temperature are thus revealed by the modifications of the infrared spectrum of the sample (75) but not by the differential heats of the CO-adsorption (76). Any modification of the nickel-oxide surface which alters its defect structure produces, however, a change of its energy spectrum with respect to carbon monoxide that is more clearly shown by heat-flow calorimetry (77) than by IR spectroscopy. 

Heat-flow calorimetry may be used also to detect the surface modifications which occur very frequently when a freshly prepared catalyst contacts the reaction mixture. Reduction of titanium oxide at 450°C by carbon monoxide for 15 hr, for instance, enhances the catalytic activity of the solid for the oxidation of carbon monoxide at 450°C (84) and creates very active sites with respect to oxygen. The differential heats of adsorption of oxygen at 450°C on the surface of reduced titanium dioxide (anatase) have been measured with a high-temperature Calvet calorimeter (67). The results of two separate experiments on different samples are presented on Fig. 34 in order to show the reproducibility of the determination of differential heats and of the sample preparation. 

Finally, experimental procedures differing from that described in the preceding examples could also be employed for studying catalytic reactions by means of heat-flow calorimetry. In order to assess, at least qualitatively, but rapidly, the decay of the activity of a catalyst in the course of its action, the reaction mixture could be, for instance, either diluted in a carrier gas and fed continuously to the catalyst placed in the calorimeter, or injected as successive slugs in the stream of carrier gas. Calorimetric and kinetic data could therefore be recorded simultaneously, at least in favorable cases, by using flow or pulse reactors equipped with heat-flow calorimeters in place of the usual furnaces. 

In the various sections of this article, it has been attempted to show that heat-flow calorimetry does not present some of the theoretical or practical limitations which restrain the use of other calorimetric techniques in adsorption or heterogeneous catalysis studies. Provided that some relatively simple calibration tests and preliminary experiments, which have been described, are carefully made, the heat evolved during fast or slow adsorptions or surface interactions may be measured with precision in heat-flow calorimeters which are, moreover, particularly suitable for investigating surface phenomena on solids with a poor heat conductivity, as most industrial catalysts indeed are. The excellent stability of the zero reading, the high sensitivity level, and the remarkable fidelity which characterize many heat-flow microcalorimeters, and especially the Calvet microcalorimeters, permit, in most cases, the correct determination of the Q-0 curve—the energy spectrum of the adsorbent surface with respect to... 

Moreover, the use of heat-flow calorimetry in heterogeneous catalysis research is not limited to the measurement of differential heats of adsorption. Surface interactions between adsorbed species or between gases and adsorbed species, similar to the interactions which either constitute some of the steps of the reaction mechanisms or produce, during the catalytic reaction, the inhibition of the catalyst, may also be studied by this experimental technique. The calorimetric results, compared to thermodynamic data in thermochemical cycles, yield, in the favorable cases, useful information concerning the most probable reaction mechanisms or the fraction of the energy spectrum of surface sites which is really active during the catalytic reaction. Some of the conclusions of these investigations may be controlled directly by the calorimetric studies of the catalytic reaction itself. 

As mentioned above, titration methods have also been adapted to calorimeters whose working principle relies on the detection of a heat flow to or from the calorimetric vessel, as a result of the phenomenon under study [195-196,206], Heat flow calorimetry was discussed in chapter 9, where two general modes of operation were presented. In some instruments, the heat flow rate between the calorimetric vessel and a heat sink is measured by use of thermopiles. Others, such as the calorimeter in figure 11.1, are based on a power compensation mechanism that enables operation under isothermal conditions. 

See ACCELERATING RATE CALORIMETRY, ASSESSMENT OF REACTIVE CHEMICAL HAZARDS, CALORIMETRY, HEAT FLOW CALORIMETRY... 

HEAT FLOW CALORIMETRY HIGH RATE DECOMPOSITION MAXIMUM REACTION HEAT... 

HEAT FLOW CALORIMETRY OXYGEN BOMB CALORIMETRY REACTION SAFETY CALORIMETRY... 

Paper Presented at the 5th Inti Symp. on the Heat Flow Calorimetry of Energetic Materials, Sept, 12-14, 2005, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. 

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