Abstract
In thermal relaxation calorimetry, the heat capacity can be calculated from the time constant τ1=Cp/Kb of the exponential decay of the cooling curve. If the thermal bond between the sample and sample holder is poor, the cooling curve is described by T−T0=A1 exp(−t/τ1)+A2 exp(−t/τ2). Analysis shows that the heat capacity of the sample plus addenda is Cp=Kb (A1τ1+A2τ2)/(A1+A2). For most cases, a good approximation is given by Cp=Kb (A1τ1/ΔT), which does not require the measurement of A2 or τ2. An expression is presented for calculating the conductance of the thermal bond of the sample to the substrate.

This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit: