TABLE OF CONTENTS Wendlandt [1] and Wunderlich [2] have dealt with some of the historical aspects of the impact of microcomputers on the field of thermal analysis. Changes have been so rapid that methods and equipment described in papers published even a few years ago (including the first edition of this book) have generally become obsolete and the trend will continue with developments such as the Internet, etc.
The manufacturers of thermal analysis equipment offer both the hardware and the software necessary to carry out most thermal analyses, with a high degree of automation, and to calculate the usual parameters from the captured data. These systems are generally specific to the particular manufacturer's equipment and the software may be difficult, or even impossible to modify for one's own requirements. Some calculations, such as the derivation of kinetic parameters under nonisothermal conditions (see Chapter 10), are areas of controversy and continuing development and it is necessary to know the approach and the algorithms being used in such software before any significance can be attached to the output. In this brief appendix, some of the basic procedures involved in data processing are outlined. A more detailed discussion is given in reference [3].
The data processing required for thermal analysis in general, and especially for DSC and DTA, bears many resemblances to that developed for gas chromatography, e.g. the establishment of and correction of the signal for the baseline; detection of onset of peaks, peak maxima and the return to the...
