Calorimetry

Definition

In major areas in Earth Science, particularly geochemistry, petrology, and mineralogy, one of fundamental theoretical frameworks is thermodynamics which is expressed by thermodynamic functions: Gibbs energy, Helmholtz energy, enthalpy, entropy, heat capacity, etc. Calorimetry means experiments to measure heat changes which lead to the thermodynamic quantities. A calorimeter is an instrument used to measure the heat change associated with change of a substance. The heat change at a constant pressure is equal to enthalpy change. Calorimetric measurements are generally divided into two categories (Sorai 2004). The first one is measurement of heat capacity, and the second is measurement of heat of reaction.

Heat Capacity Measurement

The heat capacity is defined as absorbed heat energy divided by the associated temperature change in a substance, and customarily two different heat capacities are defined, C_p and C_v, relating to temperature change at constant pressure and to that...