An isoperibolic micro-combustion calorimeter was designed, built and set up in our laboratory, taking as base a 1107 Parr combustion bomb of 22 cm(3) of volume. Taken into account the geometrical form of the bomb, it was designed and constructed a vessel and a submarine chamber in brass. All of the pieces of the calorimeter were chromium-plated to reduce heat loss by radiation. The calorimeter was calibrated by using pellets of standard benzoic acid (mass approximate of 40 mg) leading to the energy equivalent of epsilon(calor) = (1283.8 +/- 0.6) J center dot K-1. In order to test the calorimeter, combustion experiments of salicylic acid were performed leading to a value of combustion energy of Delta(c)u degrees = -(21,888.8 +/- 10.9) J center dot g(-1) which agrees with the reported literature values. The combustion of piperonylic acid was carried out as a further test leading to a value of combustion energy of Delta(c)u degrees = -(20,215.9 +/- 10.4) J center dot g(-1) in accordance with the reported literature value. The uncertainty of the calibration and the combustion of salicylic acid and piperonylic acid was 0.05%. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.