What is Differential scanning calorimeter?
'''Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC),''' is an analysis tool widely used in materials sciences, [[thermochemistry]], drug purity and food quality testing.<ref>Thomas Engel, Philip Reid , pp.77-80</ref> Its speed and ease of operation give instant information about the thermodynamic characteristics that play an important role in understanding complex processes during the formation of substances; for instance, [[polymer]] cross-linking, heat exchange due to folding and unfolding of proteins or formation mechanism of single or double stranded DNA.<ref>Thomas Engel, Philip Reid, pp.77</ref><ref>Ilian Jelesarov, Hans Rudolf Bosshard</ref> The DSC was firstly invented in 1962 by E.S. Watson and M.J. O’Neil and made available to the market in 1963 at the ''Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy'' conference held in Pittsburgh.<ref>[https://www.google.com/patents/US3263484 U.S. Patent 3,263,484]</ref> ==Physical Structure== [[File:For upload2.png|thumb|upright=1.0|'''Figure 1. '''Schematic drawing of heat flux Differential Scanning Calorimetry.]] The two most common types of differential scanning calorimeter, are ''heat flux DSC'', which operates by keeping the heat supply to the system as constant and ''power-compensated DSC'', which works by maintaining the power supplied to the calorimeter as constant. In general, a DSC calculates heat changes by measuring the temperature difference between the sample and reference holder. The typical design of the ''heat flux DSC'' can be seen from ''' Figure 1'''. It contains the ''sample holder'', where the material of interest is placed, and the ''reference holder'', which is generally kept empty. Both of these are placed on a ''support'', which is in good contact with the ''walls'' of calorimeter. The ''heating resistor'' is attached to the boundary walls that enables one to obtain a [[furnace]] generating and keeping the required heat amount inside the enclosure. The ''thermocouple'' connected to both sample and reference holder is a measuring device that gives