Home > Terms > English, UK (UE) > Differential scanning calorimetry

A method in which a sample and a reference are individually heated (by separately controlled resistance heaters, at a predetermined rate), and enthalpic (heat-generating or -absorbing) processes are detected as differences in electrical energy supplied to either the sample or the reference material to maintain this heating rate. This difference in electrical energy, in milliwatts per second, of the heat flow into or out of the sample is due to the occurrence of a physical or chemical process.