Thermal analysis is a series of powerful analytical techniques designed to characterize the thermal, physical, mechanical, and degradation properties of materials. Although applicable to almost all materials, thermal analysis is especially appropriate for polymers because of their high degree of temperature dependency. One valuable application of thermal analysis is for the characterization of adhesives.
Thermal analysis methods are widely used in research and development as well as in quality control. In addition to characterizing the polymeric sample, the thermal analysis processes provide important information regarding the effect of temperature on a sample's physical properties. Thermal analysis can be used to characterize a material before, during, or after crosslinking.
Basically, thermal analysis can consist of any process that measures a fundamental property of the polymer as a function of temperature.The maximum benefit of thermal analysis can often be gained by using a combination of these processes to characterize the polymer.