Low Temperature Heat Capacities and Thermodynamic Properties of Zinc L-Threonate Zn(C4H7O5)2(s) by Adiabatic Calorimetry

Low-temperature heat capacities of the solid compound Zn(C4H7O5)2(s) were measured in a temperature range from 78 to 374 K, with an automated adiabatic calorimeter. A solid-to-solid phase transition occurred in the temperature range of 295-322 K. The peak temperature, the enthalpy, and entropy of the phase transition were determined to be (316.269±1.039) K, (11.194±0.335) kJ·mol-1, and (35.391±0.654) J·K-1·mol-1, respectively. The experimental values of the molar heat capacities in the temperature regions of 78-295 K and 322-374 K were fitted to two polynomial equations of heat capacities(Cp,m) with reduced temperatures(X) and [X = f(T)], with the help of the least squares method, respectively. The smoothed molar heat capacities and thermodynamic functions of the compound, relative to that of the standard reference temperature 293.15 K, were calculated on the basis of the fitted polynomials and tabulated with an interval of 5 K. In addition, the possible mechanism of thermal decomposition of the compound was inferred by the result of TG-DTG analysis.