Microcalorimetry
Microcalorimetry measures extremely small heat flows — nanowatts to microwatts — from slow reactions, mixing processes, binding events, or biological activity, providing thermodynamic and kinetic data inaccessible to conventional calorimetry. As a hard skill it requires understanding isothermal titration, heat-flow, or accelerating rate calorimetry modes, preparing samples free of bubbles and contaminants that generate spurious signals, and fitting data to binding or reaction models. Battery researchers apply microcalorimetry to measure parasitic heat generation rates in cells during low-rate cycling, quantify reaction enthalpies of electrolyte additives, and detect subtle self-discharge and degradation reactions invisible to standard electrochemical measurements.
