Some remarks on heat capacity measurements by temperature-modulated calorimetry

In temperature-modulated calorimetry, the condition in sample amount, especially thickness, required for high-accuracy heat capacity measurement should be made clear. We propose the condition of maximum thickness of a sample for measuring heat capacity within an accuracy of 1%. The other important factor for high-accuracy heat capacity measurement is thermal contact conductance between a sample and a sample pan and also that between a pan and abase plate of an apparatus. The conditions in these thermal contact conductances required for high-accuracy heat capacity measurement are discussed. Among them, if only thermal contact conductance between a pan and a base plate is significant, there is an ingenious method to measure heat capacity with high accuracy. Furthermore, if the thermal contact conductance between a pan and a base plate is infinite, we offer a simple method to obtain complex hear capacity. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.