ABSTRACT
The term “thermal analysis” refers to a family of techniques whereby the structure and
properties of a sample are studied by means of observing what happens when they are
heated or cooled. There are now a very wide variety of such methods available and only
the most widely used will be covered here, along with a discussion of how and why they
are used. Nevertheless, there are some general comments that can be made at the outset
that put the techniques and their uses in a pharmaceutical context.
