Thermogravimetry (TGA) is a technique that measures the change in weight of a sample as it is either heated, cooled or held at constant temperature. Its main use is to characterize materials with regard to their composition. Application areas include plastics, elastomers and thermosets, mineral compounds and ceramics as well as a wide range of analyses in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. In the working group Mathur TG/DTA measurements are carried out to evaluate the thermal behavior of precursor molecules and the loading of nanoparticles with surfactants.

It is possible to measure samples in a range of 1 milligram up to 5 gram and determine the weight change to 0.1 μg. To characterize the behavior of the sample depending on the temperature, it is possible to use any kind of heating or cooling combinations. The program contains a big variety of heating or cooling ramps as well as holding temperature for a fixed amount of time. Additionally, manually designed combinations are also possible. The samples are stored either in an aluminum cartridge to heat it up to 600 °C or in an aluminum oxide cup to heat it up to 1100 °C. It is possible to measure both air-stable and air-sensitive compounds by choosing a different carrier gas  like oxygen, nitrogen or even argon.

Additionally the Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) allows to determine the energy absorbed or released by a sample as it is heated, cooled or held at a constant temperature. After the measurement the weight change can be plotted against the temperature and the resulting curve can be normalized to a reference mass or a reference temperature. Also the DSC curve is plotted against the temperature and shows the energy release or absorption linked to the corresponding weight change.