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a Solid
16.1 Introduction
1. It is important in the study of condensed matter
2. This is another example that classical kinetic theory
cannot provide answers that agree with
experimental observations.
3. Dulong and Petit observed in 1819 that the specific
heat capacity at constant volume of all elementary
solids is approximately 2.49*104 J .kilomole-1 K-1 i.e.
3R.
4. Dulong and Petit’s result can be explained by the
principle of equipartition of energy via treating
every atom of the solid as a linear oscillator with six
degrees of freedom.
5. Extensive studies show that the specific heat
capacity of solid varies with temperature,
becomes zero as the temperature
approaches zero.
6. Specific heat capacities of certain substances
such as boron, carbon and silicon are found
to be much smaller than 3R at room
temperature.
7. The discrepancy between experimental
results and theoretical prediction leads to
the development of new theory.
16.2 Einstein’s Theory of The Heat
Capacity of a Solid
• The crystal lattice structure of a solid
comprising N atoms can be treated as an
assembly of 3N distinguishable one-
dimensional oscillators!
Debye Temperature
Let
High temperature,
• Example I: (problem 16.1) The partition function of
an Einstein solid is
For T is high