HotstageMikroskopie

Hotstage microscopy is a technique used to observe the behavior of materials as they are heated to high temperatures. It involves mounting a sample on a microscope stage that can be precisely controlled in terms of temperature and heating rate. The sample is then viewed through a microscope while it undergoes thermal treatment. This allows researchers to observe a variety of phenomena, such as melting, crystallization, phase transitions, and decomposition in real-time.

The setup typically includes a microscope, a heating element integrated into the stage, a temperature controller, and a camera or video recording device. The heating element can be a resistance heater or a halogen lamp, capable of reaching temperatures from ambient up to several hundred or even over a thousand degrees Celsius. The temperature controller ensures accurate and reproducible heating profiles, which can be programmed to follow specific ramps or isothermal holds.

Hotstage microscopy is widely applied in materials science, chemistry, and pharmaceuticals. It is used for characterizing the thermal properties of polymers, ceramics, pharmaceuticals, and foods. For instance, it can determine melting points, glass transition temperatures, and the kinetics of phase transformations. In drug development, it helps assess the stability and polymorphic behavior of active pharmaceutical ingredients. The visual observation provided by the technique offers insights that are difficult to obtain through other thermal analysis methods.