High-speed thermo-microscope for imaging thermal desorption phenomena

In this work, we describe a thermo-microscope imaging system that can be used to visualize atmospheric pressure thermal desorption phenomena at high heating rates and frame rates. This versatile and portable instrument is useful for studying events during rapid heating of organic particles on the microscopic scale. The system consists of a zoom lens coupled to a high-speed video camera that is focused on the surface of an aluminum nitride heating element. We leverage high-speed videography with oblique incidence microscopy along with forward and back-scattered illumination to capture vivid images of thermal desorption events during rapid heating of chemical compounds. In a typical experiment, particles of the material of interest are rapidly heated beyond their boiling point while the camera captures images at several thousand frames/s. A data acquisition system, along with an embedded thermocouple and infrared pyrometer are used to measure the temperature of the heater surface. We demonstrate that, while a typical thermocouple lacks the response time to accurately measure temperature ramps that approach 150 °C/s, it is possible to calibrate the system by using a combination of infrared pyrometry, melting point standards, and a thermocouple. Several examples of high explosives undergoing rapid thermal desorption are also presented.