Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5, n-3) is a long chain crucial unsaturated fatty acid, essential for the regulation of critical biological functions in humans. Its benefits include the therapeutic treatment of cardiovascular disease, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. The fungus Pythium irregulare (ATCC 10951) has great potential as a natural EPA producer. In this study, the electroporation conditions for P. irregulare were determined. The auxotrophic selectable genes ura, trp and his were respectively cloned into the plasmid pESC to construct shuttle vectors. Electroporation with 2.0kV and a 0.2cm cuvette was applied as the most effective condition for heterogeneous genes transformation. The yield and content of EPA and other components of total fatty acids (TFA) were further determined by the FAME approach with GC, as well as the analysis of biomass. The EPA content in P. irregulare with heterologous pESC-TRP vector reached 16.68 mg/g if cultured in auxotrophic medium, which showed a 52.33% increase compared to the wild-type P. irregulare. The maximum of EPA yield was 98.52 mg/L from P. irregulare containing the pESC-URA plasmid, a 32.28% increase over the wild-type. However, the maximum cell dried weight of these two organisms were respectively 6.13g/L and 5.3g/L, significantly less than the 6.80g/L of the wild-type. Not only was a feasible approach detected to electro-transform and increase the EPA yield of P. irregulare, this study also inferred that Ï -6 route was mainly involved in the EPA biosynthesis in this organism. An antisense RNA (asRNA) thermodynamic model was developed to design new asRNA constructs capable of fine-tuning gene expression knockdown. The asRNA technology is now identified as an effective and specific method for regulating microbial gene expression at the posttranscriptional level. This is done by targeting mRNA molecules. Although the study of regulation by small RNAs is advanced in eukaryotes, the regulation of expression through artificially introducing antisense oligodeoxynucleotides into host is still being developed in prokaryotes. To study the thermodynamics of asRNA and mRNA binding, (i) the fluorescence protein genes GFP and mCherry were separately cloned into the common pUC19 vector and (ii) antisense GFP and antisense mCherry DNA fragments were randomly amplified and inserted into the constructed plasmid under the control of an additional plac promoter and terminator. The expression level of fluorescence reporter proteins was determined by plate reader in this combinatorial study. A thermodynamic model to describe the relationship between asRNA binding and observed expression level was created. The study indicates two factors that minimum binding energy of the asRNA-mRNA complex and the percentage of asRNA binding mRNA were crucial for regulating the expression level. The correlation relationship between gene expression level and binding percentage multiplied by the minimum binding energy was found to show a good correlation between the thermodynamic parameters and the observed level of gene expression. The model has the potential to predict the sequence of asRNA and the approach will ultimately be applied to cyanobacteria to increase lipids production. Here, the long-term approach is to build metabolic switches from asRNA that can turn "on/off" various cellular programs and metabolic pathways at will in a fine-tuned manner. This will allow engineers to control metabolic activity in response to reactor conditions. / Master of Science

Biomolecular interactions are fundamentally important for a wide variety of biological processes. Understanding the temperature dependence of biomolecular interactions is hence critical for applications in fundamental sciences and drug discovery. Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) technology holds great potential in facilitating temperature-dependent characterization of biomolecular interactions by providing on-chip microfluidic handling with drastically reduced sample consumption, and well controlled micro- or nanoscale environments in which biomolecules are effectively and efficiently manipulated and analyzed. This dissertation is focused on a high-through and miniaturized differential scanning calorimeter for thermodynamic study of bio-molecules using MEMS techniques. The dissertation firstly introduces the overall design and operation principles. This miniaturized DSC was fabricated based on a polyimide (PI) thin film. Highly temperature sensitive vanadium oxide was used as the thermistor material. A PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) microfluidic chamber was separately fabricated and then bonded firmly with the PI substrate by a stamp-and-stick method. Meanwhile, the micro heater design was optimized to reach better uniformity. A heating stage was constructed for fast and reliable scanning. In this study, we used syringes to deliver the 0.63 μL liquid sample into both the sample and reference chambers. All the testing processes were functionalized using the LabVIEW programs. The sensing material was also characterized. To seek a higher temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) and less resistive behavior, explorations about various PVD (physical vapor deposition) parameters and annealing conditions were conducted for optimization. In this research, we found vanadium oxide deposited under certain conditions leads to the highest TCR value (a maximum of 2.51%/oC). To better understand the material’s property, we also did the XRD (X-ray Diffraction), SEM (Scanning electron microscope). The micro calorimeter was calibrated using a step thermal response. The time constant was around 3s, the thermal conductance was 0.6mW/K, and the sensitivity was 6.1V/W. The static power resolution of the device at equilibrium is 100 nW, corresponding to 250 nJ/K. These performances confirmed the design and material to be appropriate for both good thermal isolation and power sensitivity. We demonstrated the miniaturized DSC’s performance on several different kinds of protein samples: lysozyme, and mAb (monoclonal antibody) and a DVD IgG (double variable domain immunoglobulin G). The results were found to be reasonable by comparing it with the commercial DSC’s tests. Finally, this instrument may be ideal for incorporation into high throughput screening workflows for the relative comparison of thermal properties between large numbers of proteins when only small quantities are available. The micro-DSC has the potential to characterize the thermal stability of the protein sample with significantly higher throughput and less sample consumption, which could potentially reduce the time and cost for the drug formulation in the pharmaceutical industry. / Ph. D. / Virtually all biological phenomena depend on molecular interactions, which is either intra-molecular as protein folding/unfolding or intermolecular as in ligand binding. A basic biology problem is to understand the folding and denaturation processes of a protein: the kinetics, thermodynamics and how a protein unfolds and folds back into its native state. Both folding/unfolding and denaturation processes are associated with enthalpy changes. The thermodynamics of binding compounds helps a great deal to understand the nature and potency of such molecules and is essential in drug discovery. As a label-free and immobilization-free method, calorimetry can evaluate the Gibbs free energy, enthalpy, entropy, specific heat, and stoichiometry, and thus provides a fundamental understanding of the molecular interactions. Calorimetric systems including isothermal titration calorimeters (ITC) and differential scanning calorimeters (DSC) are the gold standard for characterizing molecular interactions. In this research, a micro DSC is developed for direct thermodynamic study of bio-molecules. Compared with the current commercial DSC, it is on a much smaller scale. It consumes much less sample and time in each DSC measurement. It can enable comprehensive high-content thermodynamics study in the early stage of drug discovery and formulation. It also enables direct, precise, and rapid evaluation of the folding and unfolding of the large biomolecules like proteins, DNAs, and enzymes without labeling or immobilization. It can also be used as a powerful tool to study the membrane proteins, which is often impractical or impossible before.

The Fe-C-Cr-Mn-Ni-O system is of fundamental importance when describing the influence of oxygen on high alloyed steels. Both solid and liquid phases are of great interest: The solid phases regarding oxidation processes like the formation of oxide layers, inner oxidation, sintering processes and high temperature corrosion. The liquid phase is of interest concerning the interaction between steel and its slag in a metallurgical context. In this thesis the thermodynamic properties of this system is described using the Calphad technique. The main idea of the Calphad technique is to describe the Gibbs energy of all phases in the system as a function of temperature, pressure and composition using appropriate thermodynamic models. When thermodynamic descriptions of all phases taking part in the system are modelled and described in a database, the equilibrium state could be calculated with a software that minimizes the total Gibbs energy. Models within the compound energy formalism are used for all solution phases, among them the ionic two-sublattice liquid model, to describe both the metallic and oxide melts. All simple spinels (Cr3O4, FeCr2O4, Fe3O4, FeMn2O4, Mn3O4, MnCr2O4, NiCr2O4, NiFe2O4, NiMn2O4) within this system are described using a four-sublattice model. In this thesis several binary and ternary systems have been assessed or partly reassessed. The Fe-C-Cr-Mn-Ni-O database achieved can be used with an appropriate thermodynamic software to calculate thermodynamic properties, equilibrium states and phase diagrams. In general, the agreement between calculated and experimental values is good. / QC 20100723

<p>The main focus in the present work concerns calculations on steel/slag equilibria. Thermodynamic software and databases are now powerful and accurate enough to give reliable results when applied to complex metallurgical processes. One example is the decarburization process of high alloyed steels. It is shown that using advanced thermodynamic models, without a complicated kinetic description of the system, reasonable agreement with experimental data is obtained. The calculations are performed using the Thermo-Calc software.</p><p>Within this work a Java interface for Thermo-Calc has been implemented. Java gives graphical possibilities and a graphical interface has been created that facilitates calculations that involve both metallic phases as well as oxides and make them feasible also for an industrial user.</p>

The substance of present work is to provide standard thermodynamic functions (STF) of small size molecules for the calculation of the composition and thermodynamic properties of low-temperature plasma, and also method for such a calculation applying obtained STF under non-ideal plasma conditions. With a view to further application in modelling the phenomena in thermal plasma the range of pressures is limited to the region from 0.01 bar to 100 bar, and that of temperature to 298.15–50 kK. To obtain STF the method of partition function resulting from statistical mechanics was proposed. State of art in the given scientific area and theoretical basis of the statistical mechanics required for establishing of the proposed method together with discussion of partition function divergence problem have been reviewed. For the calculation of STF of diatomic molecules the method of direct summation has been employed, whereas, as for the larger size molecules, the rigid rotor and harmonic oscillator model have been generally adopted. The spectral data required for the calculations have been taken from literature, or, in selected cases, these have been computed by quantum chemistry ab initio techniques. The resulting STF have been included into already existing database system of thermodynamic properties and those can serve as input data for subsequent thermodynamic calculations. A general method has been worked out for the purpose of the computation of thermodynamic properties and composition of non-ideal homogenous plasma system in thermodynamic equilibrium. The method is based on minimizing total Gibbs energy to compute at constant pressure or Helmholtz energy to compute at constant volume. The computation algorithm was implemented into computer program and subsequently applied to the computation of the composition and thermodynamic properties of SF6 dissociation and ionization products using obtained STF.

The main focus in the present work concerns calculations on steel/slag equilibria. Thermodynamic software and databases are now powerful and accurate enough to give reliable results when applied to complex metallurgical processes. One example is the decarburization process of high alloyed steels. It is shown that using advanced thermodynamic models, without a complicated kinetic description of the system, reasonable agreement with experimental data is obtained. The calculations are performed using the Thermo-Calc software. Within this work a Java interface for Thermo-Calc has been implemented. Java gives graphical possibilities and a graphical interface has been created that facilitates calculations that involve both metallic phases as well as oxides and make them feasible also for an industrial user. / QC 20101118

L'interaction non-covalente entre un ligand et un récepteur selon un modèle clé-serrure constitue une des bases essentielles de tout système biologique. La présence de multiples clés et serrures sur les biomolécules conduit à des interactions multivalentes. Les lectines sont très fréquemment structurées en homo-multimères et sont donc des cibles de choix pour l'étude des interactions avec des structures multivalentes glycosylées. Ligands et récepteurs multivalents peuvent obéir à plusieurs mécanismes d'association conduisant à des profils thermodynamiques et cinétiques permettant de rationnaliser les améliorations spectaculaires d'affinité souvent observées. L'utilisation de ligands de faible valence et de petite taille permet une présentation contrôlée des sucres au travers d'une structure unique bien définie. Ces glycoclusters sont des plateformes adaptées à l'étude de l'influence de la topologie de la présentation des sucres sur l'interaction. La synthèse de glycoclusters a été optimisée selon une voie convergente de glycosylation puis de couplage par CuAAC permettant la synthèse de structures multi-glycosylées telles que des calix[4]arènes de différentes conformations, des peptoïdes linéaires et cycliques ou encore des porphyrines. Ces ligands ont été évalués par quatre techniques d'analyse des interactions (HIA, ELLA, SPR, ITC) principalement en présence de la lectine PA-IL de Pseudomonas aeruginosa mais également avec la Galectine-1 humaine et la lectine d'Erythrina cristagalli (légumineuse). Des glycoclusters de seconde génération ont été ensuite été préparés avec l'objectif d'optimiser les composantes enthalpiques et entropiques de l'interaction. Les résultats indiquent que de légères modifications de la présentation des sucres peuvent induire des mécanismes d'association différents. La conception de structures rigidifiées a révélé des profils thermodynamiques contre-intuitifs qui ont pu être modélisés. Par cette étude, plusieurs ligands ont montré des affinités sans précédent pour la lectine PA-IL. Le meilleur ligand multivalent de première génération a confirmé un potentiel thérapeutique prometteur in vivo. / Following Fischer's “lock-key“ concept, non-covalent interactions between a ligand and its receptor is one of the most fundamental process of any biological system. The presence of multiple keys and locks at the surface of many biomolecules leads to multivalent interactions. Lectins are appropriate partners for the study of multivalent interactions with multivalent glycoconjugates since lectins are generally organized as homomultimers. Association of ligands and receptors can occur through several mechanisms leading to distinct thermodynamic and kinetic patterns. Thermodynamic and kinetic parameters often rationalize the impressive affinity improvement observed in the context of multivalent interactions. Small and low valency multivalent ligands provide a neat organization of carbohydrates through a single well-defined structure. These glycoclusters are appropriate probes for studying the influence of the overall topology on the interaction. Glycocluster synthesis was optimized according to a convergent strategy consisting of a glycosidation reaction followed by multiple CuAAC couplings. This strategy yielded a library of glycoclusters based on conformers of calix[4]arenes, linear and cyclic peptoids and porphyrins scaffolds. Glycoclusters were evaluated thanks to a combination of four biochemical techniques (HIA, ELLA, SPR, ITC) mainly versus PA-IL, a tetrameric lectin from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Further investigations of these ligands were performed with a plant lectin from Erythrina cristagalli and with human galectin-1. Second generation glycoclusters were prepared in order to optimize enthalpic and entropic contributions to the interaction. Results indicate that a slight modification of the glycocluster topology could induce different mechanisms. The design of glycoclusters with stiffened linkers highlights unexpected entropic patterns. Molecular modeling of these linkers provided rationalization of these entropic patterns on the basis of Boltzmann distribution. This work present glycoclusters with an unprecedented affinity for PA-IL. The best first generation glycocluster confirmed promising therapeutic potentialities in vivo.

For many decades zirconium alloys have been commonly used in the nuclear power industry as fuel cladding material. Besides their good corrosion resistance and acceptable mechanical properties the main reason for using these alloys is the low neutron absorption. Zirconium alloys are exposed to a very severe environment during the nuclear fission process and there is a demand for better design of this material. To meet this requirement a thermodynamic database is useful to support material designers. In this thesis some aspects of the development of a thermodynamic database for zirconium alloys are presented. A thermodynamic database represents an important facility in applying thermodynamic equilibrium calculations for a given material providing: 1) relevant information about the thermodynamic properties of the alloys e.g. amount and composition of phases, oxygen activity, heat capacity etc, and 2) significant information for the manufacturing process e.g. heat treatment temperature. The basic information in the database is first the unary data, i.e. pure elements; those are taken from the compilation of the Scientific Group Thermodata Europe (SGTE) and then the binary and ternary systems. All phases present in those binary and ternary systems are described by means of the Gibbs energy as a function of composition and temperature. Many of those binary systems have been taken from published or unpublished works and others have been assessed in the present work. The elements included in the databse are: C, Fe, Cr, Nb, Ni, Mo, O, Si, Sn, and Zr + H, and the assessment performed under this thesis are: Cr-Sn, Mo-Zr, Sn-Zr, Fe-Nb-Zr and Nb-O-Zr. All the calculations have been made using Thermo-Calc software and the representation of the Gibbs energy obtained by applying Calphad technique with some use of ab initio calculations. / QC 20100902

Nous étudions la distillation extractive continue de mélanges azéotropiques à temperature de bulle minimale avec un entraineur lourd (classe 1.0-1a) avec comme exemples les mélanges acétone-méthanol avec l’eau et DIPE-IPA avec le 2-méthoxyethanol. Le procédé inclut les colonnes de distillation extractive et de régénération de l’entraineur en boucle ouverte et en boucle fermée. Une première stratégie d’optimisation consiste à minimiser la fonction objectif OF en cherchant les valeurs optimales du débit d’entraineur FE, les positions des alimentations en entraineur et en mélange NFE, NFAB, NFReg, les taux de reflux R1, R2 et les débits de distillat de chaque colonne D1, D2. OF décrit la demande en énergie par quantité de distillat et tient compte des différences de prix entre les utilités chaudes et froides et entre les deux produits. La deuxième stratégie est une optimisation multiobjectif qui minimise OF, le coût total annualisé (TAC) et maximise deux nouveaux indicateurs thermodynamiques d’efficacité de séparation extractive totale Eext et par plateau eext. Ils décrivent la capacité de la section extractive à séparer le produit entre le haut et le bas de la section extractive. L’analyse thermodynamique des réseaux de courbes de résidu ternaires RCM et des courbes d’isovolatilité montre l’intérêt de réduire la pression opératoire dans la colonne extractive pour les séparations de mélanges 1.0-1a. Une pression réduite diminue la quantité minimale d’entraineur et accroît la volatilité relative du mélange binaire azéotropique dans la région d’opération de la colonne extractive. Cela permet d’utiliser un taux de reflux plus faible et diminue la demande énergétique. La première stratégie d’optimisation est conduite avec des contraintes sur la pureté des produits avec les algorithmes SQP dans les simulateurs Aspen Plus ou Prosim Plus en boucle ouverte. Les variables continues optimisées sont : R1, R2 et FE (étape 1). Une étude de sensibilité permet de trouver les valeurs de D1, D2 (étape 2) et NFE, NFAB, NFReg (étape 3), tandis l’étape 1 est faite pour chaque jeu de variables discrètes. Enfin le procédé est resimulé en boucle fermée et TAC, Eext et eext sont calculés (étape 4). Les bilans matières expliquent l’interdépendance des débits de distillats et des puretés des produits. Cette optimisation permet de concevoir des procédés avec des gains proches de 20% en énergie et en coût. Les nouveaux procédés montrent une amélioration des indicateurs Eext et eext. Afin d’évaluer l’influence de Eext et eext sur la solution optimale, la seconde optimisation multiobjectif est conduite. L’algorithme génétique est peu sensible à l’initialisation, permet d’optimiser les variables discrètes N1, N2 et utilise directement le shéma de procédé en boucle fermée. L’analyse du front de Pareto des solutions met en évidence l’effet de FE/F et R1 sur TAC et Eext. Il existe un Eext maximum (resp. R1 minimum) pour un R1 donné (resp. Eext). Il existe aussi un indicateur optimal Eext,opt pour le procédé optimal avec le plus faible TAC. Eext,opt ne peut pas être utilisé comme seule fonction objectif d’optimisation mais en complément des autres fonctions OF et TAC. L’analyse des réseaux de profils de composition extractive explique la frontière du front de Pareto et pourquoi Eext augmente lorsque FE diminue et R1 augmente, le tout en lien avec le nombre d’étage. Visant à réduire encore TAC et la demande énergétique nous étudions des procédés avec intégration énergétique double effet (TEHI) ou avec des pompes à chaleur (MHP). En TEHI, un nouveau schéma avec une intégration énergétique partielle PHI réduit le plus la demande énergétique. En MHP, la recompression partielle des vapeurs VRC et bottom flash partiel BF améliorent les performances de 60% et 40% respectivement. Au final, le procédé PHI est le moins coûteux tandis que la recompression totale des vapeurs est la moins énergivore. / We study the continuous extractive distillation of minimum boiling azeotropic mixtures with a heavy entrainer (class 1.0-1a) for the acetone-methanol with water and DIPE-IPA with 2-methoxyethanol systems. The process includes both the extractive and the regeneration columns in open loop flowsheet and closed loop flowsheet where the solvent is recycled to the first column. The first optimization strategy minimizes OF and seeks suitable values of the entrainer flowrate FE, entrainer and azeotrope feed locations NFE, NFAB, NFReg, reflux ratios R1, R2 and both distillates D1, D2. OF describes the energy demand at the reboiler and condenser in both columns per product flow rate. It accounts for the price differences in heating and cooling energy and in product sales. The second strategy relies upon the use of a multi-objective genetic algorithm that minimizes OF, total annualized cost (TAC) and maximizes two novel extractive thermodynamic efficiency indicators: total Eext and per tray eext. They describe the ability of the extractive section to discriminate the product between the top and to bottom of the extractive section. Thermodynamic insight from the analysis of the ternary RCM and isovolatility curves shows the benefit of lowering the operating pressure of the extractive column for 1.0-1a class separations. A lower pressure reduces the minimal amount of entrainer and increases the relative volatility of original azeotropic mixture for the composition in the distillation region where the extractive column operates, leading to the decrease of the minimal reflux ratio and energy consumption. The first optimization strategy is conducted in four steps under distillation purity specifications: Aspen Plus or Prosim Plus simulator built-in SQP method is used for the optimization of the continuous variables: R1, R2 and FE by minimizing OF in open loop flowsheet (step 1). Then, a sensitivity analysis is performed to find optimal values of D1, D2 (step 2) and NFE, NFAB, NFReg (step 3), while step 1 is done for each set of discrete variables. Finally the design is simulated in closed loop flowsheet, and we calculate TAC and Eext and eext (step 4). We also derive from mass balance the non-linear relationships between the two distillates and how they relate product purities and recoveries. The results show that double digit savings can be achieved over designs published in the literature thanks to the improving of Eext and eext. Then, we study the influence of the Eext and eext on the optimal solution, and we run the second multiobjective optimization strategy. The genetic algorithm is usually not sensitive to initialization. It allows finding optimal total tray numbers N1, N2 values and is directly used with the closed loop flow sheet. Within Pareto front, the effects of main variables FE/F and R1 on TAC and Eext are shown. There is a maximum Eext (resp. minimum R1) for a given R1 (resp. Eext). There exists an optimal efficiency indicator Eext,opt which corresponds to the optimal design with the lowest TAC. Eext,opt can be used as a complementary criterion for the evaluation of different designs. Through the analysis of extractive profile map, we explain why Eext increases following the decrease of FE and the increase of R1 and we relate them to the tray numbers. With the sake of further savings of TAC and increase of the environmental performance, double-effect heat integration (TEHI) and mechanical heat pump (MHP) techniques are studied. In TEHI, we propose a novel optimal partial HI process aiming at the most energy saving. In MHP, we propose the partial VRC and partial BF heat pump processes for which the coefficients of performance increase by 60% and 40%. Overall, optimal partial HI process is preferred from the economical view while full VRC is the choice from the environmental perspective.

La diminution de l'impact environnemental de l'industrie des transports par l'allégement des structures des véhicules passe par une utilisation accrue de matériaux à base de magnésium. Ces matériaux peuvent bénéficier d'un développement accéléré par le biais de simulations numériques s'appuyant sur des bases de données thermodynamiques. En ce qui concerne le système Al-C-Mg, les bases de données thermodynamiques commerciales sont incomplètes à cause du nombre insuffisant de données disponibles. Cette lacune est notamment synonyme de l'absence de guide dans l'identification des mécanismes régissant l'affinement de microstructures d'alliages Mg-Al par inoculation de carbone débattus dans la littérature. Par conséquent, l'objectif de cette étude a été d'aboutir à une évaluation thermodynamique complète du système ternaire Al-C-Mg. Dans un premier temps, une étude critique de la littérature concernant le système Al-C-Mg et ses sous-systèmes a été menée. Cette revue a mis en lumière des désaccords et des manques à propos des données relatives aux systèmes Al-C et Al-C-Mg. Dans un second temps, une démarche expérimentale basée sur l'utilisation de creusets scellés en Ta a été développée. La méthodologie mise en place est prometteuse puisqu'elle a permis de travailler avec le magnésium jusqu'à 2094 K (1821°C) et 41 bars de pression. Dans un troisième temps, la détermination expérimentale ainsi que par le calcul DFT de données relatives aux systèmes Al-C et Al- C-Mg a été entreprise. La capacité thermique ainsi que l'enthalpie et l'entropie standard de formation des carbures Al4C3 et T2-Al2MgC2 ont été obtenues. De plus, la structure cristallographique de la phase T2-Al2MgC2 a été confirmée par DRX sur monocristal, et la nature et la température de la décomposition invariante du carbure ternaire ont été déterminées. Dans un dernier temps, une modélisation CALPHAD des systèmes Al-C et Al-C-Mg a été conduite sur la base des données de la littérature sélectionnée de façon critique et de celles nouvellement obtenues. Des descriptions thermodynamiques cohérentes de la phase Al2MgC2, de la solution de Mg dans Al4C3 ainsi que du liquide Al-C-Mg ont été obtenues. Ces descriptions vont alimenter les bases de données thermodynamiques et vont favoriser le développement des alliages Mg-Al et des composites à matrice Mg-Al renforcés par des matériaux carbonés. Cette étude apporte un argument fort supportant le fait que la phase Al2MgC2 est responsable de l'affinement de microstructures d'alliages Mg-Al par inoculation de carbone / To reduce its environmental footprint by lightweight vehicles design, the transportation sector relies on an increased use of magnesium based materials. Computational approaches relying on the use of thermodynamic databases can enable the accelerated development of such materials. Commercial thermodynamic databases regarding the Al-C-Mg are unreliable due to a lack of data. As a result, no guidance can be provided regarding the underlying mechanisms of the grain refinement of Mg-Al alloys by carbon inoculation which are debated in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to provide a reliable thermodynamic assessment of the Al-C-Mg system. First of all, the literature regarding the Al-C-Mg system and its subsystems was critically reviewed. This review highlighted disagreements and shortages regarding the data related to the Al-C and Al-C-Mg systems. Secondly, an experimental procedure based on the use of sealed Ta crucibles was developed. This procedure is promising as it allowed working with magnesium up to 2094 K (1821°C) and 41 bars of pressure. Thirdly, experimental investigation and ab-initio calculations of data related to the Al-C and Al-C-Mg systems were conducted. The heat capacity as well as the standard enthalpy and entropy of formation of Al4C3 and Al2MgC2 were obtained. Furthermore, the crystal structure of Al2MgC2 was confirmed on the basis of single-crystal X-ray diffraction data, and the thermal stability of the ternary carbide was determined. Lastly, CALPHAD optimization of the Al-C and Al-C-Mg systems was conducted on the basis of the critically assessed literature data as well as of those freshly obtained. Self-consistent thermodynamic descriptions of Al2MgC2, (Al,Mg)4C3 as well as the Al-C-Mg liquid phase were obtained. Those descriptions will fuel the thermodynamic databases and will enable the development of Mg-Al alloys and Mg-Al matrix carbon materials reinforced composites. This study provides a convincing argument supporting the fact that Al2MgC2 is responsible for the grain refinement of Mg-Al alloys by carbon inoculation