COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HEAT CAPACITY CV FOR CADMIUM TELLURIDE

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare theoretical values with experimental measurements of molar heat capacity at a constant volume (Cv) in order to determine the best value for a Debye's temperature (θD) for cadmium telluride (CdTe). Debye's model was used to calculate the molar heat capacity Cv as a function of the absolute temperature for CdTe in the temperature ranges 7 K to 700 K. The experimental measurements were compared with the calculated values using several Debye's temperatures to determine the best congruence between the calculated and the experimental results of heat capacity Cv.
The results showed great agreement between the calculated theoretical values of Cv and the experimental data at medium and high temperatures. In general, the Debye's temperature of 144.67 K gave a best fit between the experimental and the theoretical results almost in the entire temperature range, where the sum of squares of deviations was 〖0.3824 [J⁄((mol∙K))]〗^2.