Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Heat Capacity And Thermodynamic Properties Of The Iron Oxides And Their Relation To The Mineral Core Of The Iron Storage Protein Ferritin, Claine Lindsey Morton Snow

Theses and Dissertations

The iron oxides are a group of materials with geological, biological, and technological importance. A thermodynamic understanding of these materials is important because it provides information about their relative stabilities, chemical reactivity, and transformations. This study provides the heat capacity of a nanocrystalline magnetite (Fe3O4) sample, bulk hematite (α-Fe2O3), nanocrystalline hematite, akaganéite (β-FeOOH), and lepidocrocite (γ-FeOOH) at temperatures as low as 0.5 K. These measurements were fit to theoretical functions at temperatures lower than 15 K, and the respective thermophysical properties of these materials are discussed. Also the molar entropies of bulk hematite and hydrous nanocrystalline hematite as well as …