Heat capacities, third-law entropies and thermodynamic functions of the negative thermal expansion material Zn2GeO4 from T=(0 to 400) K

Abstract The molar heat capacity of Zn 2 GeO 4 , a material which exhibits negative thermal expansion below ambient temperatures, has been measured in the temperature range 0.5⩽( T /K)⩽400. At T =298.15 K, the standard molar heat capacity is (131.86 ± 0.26) J · K −1  · mol −1 . Thermodynamic functions have been generated from smoothed fits of the experimental results. The standard molar entropy at T =298.15 K is (145.12 ± 0.29) J · K −1  · mol −1 . The existence of low-energy modes is supported by the excess heat capacity in Zn 2 GeO 4 compared to the sums of the constituent binary oxides.