Design and experience of using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as the inbuilt light source for a customised differential photomicrocalorimeter

In the photomicrocalorimetric module designed by Johansson and Wadsö for a commercial Thermometric TAM heat conduction batch microcalorimeter, the incident light from an external xenon lamp was divided by a beam splitter and directed to the two vessels of the differential system by light guides ideally to give zero heat flow. In practice this proved difficult and so to improve the balance between the vessels in terms of the incident light heat output as well as potentially to give more versatility regarding the choice of wavelengths, the xenon lamp-based system was replaced in the first stage by a pair of cold white LEDs embedded directly in the test and reference vessels. The LEDs had independent electrical circuits to achieve the balance by manual adjustment. As a second stage, the test vessel was equipped with PTFE tubing for changing the liquid phase in it while it was in the middle thermal equilibrium position. This improved the reproducibility of the results.