Experimental determination of the nucleation rates of undercooled micron-sized liquid droplets based on fast chip calorimetry

• Fast scanning calorimeter calibration with position dependence.
• Calibration of fast scanning calorimeter during cooling.
• Quantitative determination of nucleation rates by treating the undercooling as stochastic parameter

Accurate thermal analyzes and calorimetry measurements depend on careful calibration measurements. For conventional differential scanning calorimeters (DSC) the calibration procedure is well known. The melting point of different pure metals is measured and compared with literature data to adjust the temperature reading of the calorimeter. Likewise, the measured melting enthalpies of standard reference substances serve for enthalpy calibration. Yet for fast chip calorimetry, new procedures need to be established. For the medium-area and large-area calorimeter chips, this procedure needs to be modified, because the calibration behavior depends on the position of the sample on the measurement area. Additionally, a way to calibrate the calorimeter for measurements performed during cooling will also be shown. For this second aspect, the athermal and diffusionless martensitic phase transformation of Ni49.9–Ti50.1 at% was used. The well-calibrated sensor chips are ideally suited to perform nucleation rate density analyzes based on a statistical approach. Here, the nucleation rate densities of micron-sized pure Sn droplets that had been coated with a non-catalytic coating have been determined by experimental analysis of the statistical variance of the undercooling response.