Temperature sensitivity of a quartz crystal microbalance for TGA in Space

This research activity investigates the temperature-frequency relationship of quartz crystal microbalance for thermogravimetric analyses in space. The microbalance configuration is innovative because of built-in heater and temperature sensor made by metallic films deposited on the crystal. This configuration allows direct temperature measurement over the sensing area, an essential feature for a thermogravimetric sensor that must operate in a wide temperature range, in transient conditions and/or with unknown external heat flux. In fact, beside the deposited mass, the oscillating frequency of the crystal strongly depends on the temperature of the electrode area. In this work, the effect of the temperature on the microbalance frequency has been addressed for the case of uniform distribution, in the temperature range from -20°C to 100°C but the methodology hereafter presented, can be applied to vider temperature ranges where a specific microbilance might be required to operate.