Heat capacity and thermodynamic properties of α-Fe2O3 in the region 300–1050 K. antiferromagnetic transition

The heat capacity of synthetic α-Fe₂O₃ has been measured in the range 300–1050K by adiabatic shield calorimetry with intermittent energy inputs and temperature equilibration in between. A λ-type transition, related to the change from antiferro- to paramagnetism in the compound, is delineated and a maximum heat capacity of about 195 JK^?1 mole^?1 is observed over a 3 K interval around 955 K. Values of thermodynamic functions have been derived and C_P (1000K), [H⁰(1000K)-H⁰(0)], and [S⁰(1000K)-S⁰(0)] are 149.0JK^?1 mole^?1, 115.72 kJ mole^?1, and 252.27 JK^?1 mole^?1, respectively, after inclusion of earlier low-temperature results [X⁰ (298.15K)-X⁰(0)]. The non-magnetic heat capacity is estimated and the thermodynamic properties of the magnetic transition evaluated. The results are compared with spin-wave calculations in the random phase approximation below the Néel temperature and the Oguchi pair model above. An upper estimate of the total magnetic entropy gives 32.4JK^?1 mole^?1, which compares favorably with that calculated for randomization of five unpaired electron spins on each iron, ΔS = 2R ln 6 = 29.79 JK^?1 mole^?1 for α-Fe₂O₃. The critical exponent α in the equation $\text{C}{}_{\mathrm{m}}\text{= (}\text{A}\text{α}\text{) [(|T}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>n</mtext>}}\text{?T|/T}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>n</mtext>}}\text{)?1]}{}^{\mathrm{?\alpha }}\text{+ B}$ is ?(0.50±0.10) below the maximum and 0.15±0.10 above, for T_n = 955.0K. The high temperature tail is discussed in terms of short range order.