The specific heat of lithium from 20 to 300 °K: the martensitic transformation

Abstract

Measurements on lithium of atomic weight 6·945 are reported. A thermal study of the martensitic transformation showed a large specific-heat anomaly in the reversion region and a specific heat dependent upon thermal history in the two-phase region. The high-temperature end of the reversion anomaly shows time effects which suggest that the process here is controlled by a spectrum of activation energies of the same order of magnitude as that for self diffusion. With some assumptions the heat of transformation from hexagonal closepacked to body-centered cubic lithium is deduced to be about 14 cal/g atom and the Debye temperatures of the two phases at 60 °K are 390 and 371 °K respectively. The entropy at 298·15 °K is 6·95 ±0·04 cal/°K g atom.