A Compact MEMS Chip for a Rapid and Highly Accurate Picoliter Calorimetry

We introduce a compact MEMS-based microcalorimeter (
$\mu \mathrm{C}$
) for rapid ultrasmall-volume sample analysis. The chip features a time constant of 4 ms, with the possibility of achieving high scanning rate and sensitivity without noticeably distorting the thermograms. We demonstrated the chip performance in differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) mode and measured the melting temperature (
$T_{\mathrm{m}}$
) of bovine serum albumin (BSA) at 75 K·min
⁻¹
, one of the fastest scan rate reported. The measured melting point of 77.4 °C is practically identical to that measured by a conventional MEMS-based DSC. Our system exhibits an unprecedented accuracy at such a high scanning rate having the capability of performing a flash DSC analysis for a liquid phase sample.