Heat capacity measurements on uranium–cerium mixed oxides by differential scanning calorimetry

Abstract

Uranium–cerium mixed oxides of three different compositions (U 0.2Ce 0.8)O 2, (U 0.5Ce 0.5)O 2 and (U 0.8Ce 0.2)O 2, were prepared by combustion synthesis and characterized by XRD. The compositional characterization was done by ICP-AES. Heat capacity measurements employed a heat flux type differential scanning calorimeter from 280 to 820 K. The heat capacity values of (U 0.2Ce 0.8)O 2, (U 0.5Ce 0.5)O 2 and (U 0.8Ce 0.2)O 2 at 298 K are 62.8, 64.2 and 70.1 J K −1 mol −1, respectively. Enthalpy increment, entropy and Gibbs energy function were computed from the heat capacity data.