Measuring thermal conductivity of powders with differential scanning calorimetry

Abstract

This paper simplifies a recently proposed method for measuring the thermal conductivity of powders using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) (Sa´nchez-Rodríguez et al. in J Therm Anal Calorim 121:469-473, 2015). With this method, a crucible is filled with powder and a spherical metal reference is partially sunk into it. The thermal resistance between the metal and the crucible wall at the metal melting point is obtained from the DSC melting peak slope. In the simplified method outlined in this paper, a cylindrical pan is substituted for the original hemispherical crucible. The equivalence of both methods is demonstrated with alumina powder and commercial cylindrical crucibles of several sizes and aspect ratios