Peltier tip calorimeter

Abstract

A novel calorimeter, termed as the Peltier tip calorimeter, is developed. The calorimeter consists of a single thermocouple junction, called the Peltier tip, which is used as a heater and a sensor simultaneously. We demonstrate that the Peltier tip calorimeter is capable of measuring the heat capacity of a small solid sample with submilligrams of mass and also the thermophysical properties of a liquid such as heat capacity and thermal conductivity. It is also proposed that a Peltier tip be used as a local calorimeter for scanning thermal microscopy. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.