Kinetics of solid-gas reactions characterized by scanning AC nano-calorimetry with application to Zr oxidation

Scanning AC nano-calorimetry is a recently developed experimental technique capable of measuring the heat capacity of thin-film samples of a material over a wide range of temperatures and heating rates. Here, we describe how this technique can be used to study solid-gas phase reactions by measuring the change in heat capacity of a sample during reaction. We apply this approach to evaluate the oxidation kinetics of thin-film samples of zirconium in air. The results confirm parabolic oxidation kinetics with an activation energy of 0.59 ± 0.03 eV. The nano-calorimetry measurements were performed using a device that contains an array of micromachined nano-calorimeter sensors in an architecture designed for combinatorial studies. We demonstrate that the oxidation kinetics can be quantified using a single sample, thus enabling high-throughput mapping of the composition-dependence of the reaction rate.