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Glass Transition Measurement of Macromolecules in Nanophases by Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) (CAT#: STEM-MB-0501-WXH)

Introduction

Thermodynamically, a phase is defined as the physical state of matter, which is uniform throughout. Different phases are considered as domains that differ in chemical or physical states. According to the size, phases are classified as macrophases (i.e., bulk phase), microphases (i.e., small phase with strong surface effects), and nanophases (1–50 nm).
Tg (Glass Transition Temperature) is one of the important thermodynamical parameter changes in nanophases of matter, and it is practically measurable using DSC. Glass transitions are also defined as “brittle points” to mark a transition from the liquid to the solid state.




Principle

Calorimetry is a primary technique for measuring the thermal properties of materials to establish a connection between temperature and specific physical properties of substances and is the only method for direct determination of the enthalpy associated with the process of interest. Calorimeters are used frequently in chemistry, biochemistry, cell biology, biotechnology, pharmacology, and recently, in nanoscience to measure thermodynamic properties of the biomolecules and nano-sized materials.
Amongst various types of calorimeters, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) is a popular one. DSC is a thermal analysis apparatus measuring how physical properties of a sample change, along with temperature against time.1In other words, the device is a thermal analysis instrument that determines the temperature and heat flow associated with material transitions as a function of time and temperature. During a change in temperature, DSC measures a heat quantity, which is radiated or absorbed excessively by the sample on the basis of a temperature difference between the sample and the reference material.

Applications

Glass Transition Measurement of Macromolecules in Nanophases.

Procedure

1. Instrument Start-up
2. Sample Preparation
(1) Dialyze the sample against the buffer that will be used as the reference for the experiment.
(2) Determine the concentration of the protein sample using the most suitable protein concentration determination method.
(3) Degas the sample and reference buffer in vacuum to get rid of microbubbles that can cause volume inaccuracy.
(4) load the samples and their respective buffer in pairs into 96 well plates compatible with the instrument.
(5) Place the plate in the sample holding compartment in the proper orientation.
3. Experimental Parameter Setup
Set the starting temperature, final temperature and the scan rate of the experiment.
4. Data Analysis

Materials

Differential Scanning Calorimeters
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