Hot Gas Blower (Cyberstar)

About

11-BM has a dedicated Cyberstar Hot Gas Blower. This can be used to heat small diameter capillary samples from ambient temperature to ~ 950 °C

About

Temperature Range and Ramp Rate.

ambient temperature to ~ 950 °C
Max ramp rate on heating & cooling is 5 deg C/min (300 C/hour)

Users should plan experiments to incorporate these heating and cooling ramp times.

11-BM Hot Gas Blower Image

Temperature Profile & Alignment

Temperature Calibration

Al2O3 Thermal Expansion

In-situ calibration of the hot gas blower was performed using the known thermal expansion of Al2O3 alumina a & c unit cell parameters as a function of temperature.

Full powder diffraction patterns were collected for select "nominal" set temperatures between 100 - 950 C at 11-BM using a X.X mm diameter fused quartz capillary load with ??? Al2O3 powder.

Refinements were performed against data from each nominal temperature to determine a & c unit cell parameters.

Based on the initial room temperature 25 C lattice values and published thermal expansion equations (below, see Reference 1), "real" observed sample temperatures were then calculated independently for each set of 'a & c unit cell terms.

The thermal expansion equation used for the a axis of Al203 (range 293-1900 K) is:

delta(a)/a (%) = -0.176 + (5.431E-4 * T) + (2.150-7 * T^2) - (2.810E-11 * T^3) (T/K)
room-temperature lattice parameter is a = 4.7592 A

The thermal expansion equation used for the c axis of Al203 (range 293-1900 K) is:

delta(c)/c (%) = -0.192 + (5.927E-4 * T) + (2.142E-7 * T^2) - (2.207E-11 * T^3) (T/K)
room-temperature lattice parameter is c = 12.9934 A

Reference 1 = J. Appl. Cryst. (1993). 26, 77-81

Finally, plotting observed vs nominal set temperatures for the Al2O3 data gives a correction curve and equation for other hot air blower under similar measurement conditions.

These results (from July 2012) are showen below.

Note: the 11-BM calibration data are kindly shared by Jae-Hyuk Her, GE Global Research.