Development of microcontroller based thermogravimetric analyzer

Thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) is an analytical technique extensively used to study the thermal decomposition of inorganic solids, their kinetics, reaction mechanisms, chemical property, structure of intermediate and final products and synthetic conditions. This paper reports the development of microcontroller based thermogravimetric analyzer. The TGA has been setup with additional features like controlled gas delivery system suitable for the study of decomposition (gas-solid interaction) in various atmospheres like air, oxygen, hydrogen, etc. The displacement of the spring in the system due to sample weight loss or gain on heating can be measured by using Infrared (IR) grating assembly and also by using cathetometer (least count is 0.001 cm). © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Characterisation of BiFeO3 synthesised by microcontroller based thermogravimetric analyser

Microcontroller based thermogravimetric analyser (MTGA) is a home built technique extensively used to study the thermal decomposition of inorganic solids and preparation of nanomaterials. This paper reports the characterization of bismuth ferrite BiFeO3 (BFO) synthesized by microcontroller based thermogravimetric analyser. The synthesized nanopowder is characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) method for phase confirmation, crystallite size calculations and scanning electron microscope (SEM) for morphology study. The structure and thermal properties of BFO precursor are studied by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results of nano BiFeO3 synthesized by microcontroller based TGA are in good agreement with that synthesized by other techniques