Infrared Thermopile Temperature Measurement Technique in Microwave Heating Systems

Temperature measurement in microwave systems is essential for thermally driven processes, namely, catalytic reactions and ceramic sintering. Although, the application of direct thermometry methods, namely, thermocouples, have been commonly articulated in the available literature, however, contacted temperature measurement mechanisms have aroused concerns associated with the disruption of the electromagnetic field and local distortion of the field pattern leading to unprecedented measurement uncertainties. Consequently, the application of optical measurement methods has been advocated to diminish the associated concerns. However, due to the economical constrains and measurement range restrictions, the application of optical measurement systems, namely, pyrometers and optical fibers, has been deferred. In this study, an infrared thermopile, a precise and feasible temperature measurement system has been developed and calibrated to perform in microwave irradiation. Furthermore, the accuracy of the developed temperature system has been compared with the thermometry technique. It was concluded that thermopile stipulates unrivalled precision, succeeding a profound calibration procedure. It was further demonstrated that the thermopile is capable of the temperature measurement of the dielectric surfaces, exclusively, while the grounded thermocouple monitored the bulk temperature, a proportion of the gas phase and the solid phase temperature values. Consequently, the application of a thermopile coupled with a thermometry measurement method has been proposed to monitor the temperature of the dielectric catalyst active sites in gas-solid catalytic microwave-heated reactions.